Anti-Diarrheal Evaluation of Medinilla septentrionalis

Abstract

-Medinilla septentrionalis is shrub, wildly distributed in Nui Ba National park, Lam Dong, Vietnam. Although there is no scientific publication about the Medinilla septentrionalis as medicinal plant, the plant has been used for diarrhea treatment by ethnic minorities there. In this study M. septentrionalis ethanolic extract was used to evaluate antibacterial activity, toxicity and anti-diarrheal activity. The results showed that M. septentrionalis ethanolic extract had highly antibacterial activity, particularly to diarrhea relating bacteria such as Salmonella spp., Shigella spp., Vibrio spp. and Escherichia coli. The M. septentrionalis ethanolic extract also effectively prevented enteropooling, reduced either time of charcoal transit in small intestine or defecation in castor oil-induced mice at 63 mg kg –1 body weight. In addition, no significant toxicity signs and mortality were observed on mice after treating the plant extract up to doses of 10000 mg kg –1 body weight. The preliminary phytochemical screening of M. septentrionalis ethanolic extract showed the presence of carbohydrates, saponins, cardiac glycosides, flavonoids, phenolic compounds, tannins and steroids. These results strongly demonstrated that M. septentrionalis ethanolic extract possessed highly anti-bacterial and anti-diarrheal properties. The results in this study contributed a validation data for the use of M. septentrionalis in diarrheal treatment.