The present study was undertaken to evaluate the anticonvulsant and antidepressant effects of Ascotheca paucinervia leaves on mice by using strychnine at 2.5mg/kg to induce convulsions and the forced swimming test to create a stressful situation, respectively. Concerning convulsions, only the 500mg/kg extract significantly increases (p<0.001) the time to onset of convulsions and it non-significantly reduces the duration of convulsions induced by strychnine. In addition, the extract reduces very significantly in a dose-dependent manner the time of immobility and it significantly increases the swimming time as well as the climbing time at both doses. At the same time, the estimation of the acute toxicity of the extract from the leaves of Ascotheca paucinervia according to guideline No. 425 of the OECD (2022) shows that the latter is weakly toxic and its LD50 is greater than 5000mg/kg. In addition, the evaluation of the sedative effect of this extract shows that it produces a dose-dependent sedative effects and at doses of 250m/kg and 500mg/kg, the extract significantly potentiates the sleep induced by phenobarbital. In summary, the results obtained suggest that Ascotheca paucineervia leaves extract possesses anticonvulsant and antidepressant effects.

No abstract

C. febrifuga known by the common name (Mvala) is a medicinal plant of the Rubiaceae family widely used by Congolese traditional healers to treat many diseases. For this study two extracts of aqueous and methanol were taken away with the yield of 8.5% and 11% respectively. The convulsions latency time in rats treated with different extracts was greater than 15 minutes. Among five rats one presented convulsions compared to the control group. C. febrifuga protected rats against convulsions induced by PIC and STR. Gaba dosage in rats brain homogenizing showed that C. febrifuga increased Gaba rate in rats brain (4.10 ± 0.39) compared to the control group(2.04 ± 0.03) significantly. Consequently, histamine rate decreased insignificantly.

No abstract

Epilepsy is a disorder in the nervous system which often causes a loss of consciousness. Traditional treatments are quiet a component of health care system in various populations in spite of the fact that well-established options are available. Most plants are used to treat epilepsy or those which have been verified for anticonvulsant activity were reported. Then, Costus afer is a plant of the Congolese flora used in traditional medicine for its many virtues.Therefore, the anticonvulsant activity of Costus afer was assessed with the strychnine convulsion induction test. Two tests were used for sedative activity such as the barbiturate sleep induction test and motor activity and finally the forced swimming test was also used to assess antidepressant activity. The results showed that the aqueous extract of Costus afer stems had no effects on strychnine-induced seizures at doses of 250 mg/kg and 500 mg/kg compared to the control group. However, the extract of Costus afer stems caused a very significant decrease in motricity at a dose of 500 mg/kg, showing a decrease in the onset time and a very significant increase in sleep duration like the reference molecule such as Diazepam. The aqueous extract of Costus afer stems also caused a decrease in immobility time in mice at a dose of 500 mg/kg.