Anxiolytic-like and antidepressant-like effects of ethanol extract of Terminalia chebula in mice

Terminalia chebula (T.chebula) fruit is referred as King of Medicines in Tibet and is listed as a key plantin Ayurvedic Materia Medicadue to its diverse pharmacological activity. The present study was aimedto investigate the comorbid antidepressant-like and anxiolytic-like effects of ethanol extract from T.chebula fruit using experimental behavioral tests in mice. In addition, the study explored the effects ofextract on monoamine oxidaseeA (MAO-A) levels in mouse brain. Two doses of the T.chebula extract(100 or 200 mg/kg, p.o.) were treated continuously forfifteen days to mice. Regarding antidepressant-like effects, the treatment of T.chebula extract at both dose (100 or 200 mg/kg, p.o.) levels resultedwith significant (p<0.001) reduction in duration of immobility time and increase in swimming time ascompared to control group in forced swimming test. Moreover, both doses declined the duration ofimmobility time in the tail suspension test and increased the number of crossing in the center area usingopen-field test. Additionally, the dose 200 mg/kg treatment showed a significant reduction (p<0.05) inMAO-A activity in mouse brain. For anxiolytic activity, both doses significantly (p<0.001) improved thetime spent in open arm and the number of head dips in elevated plus maze test. The higher duration oftime spent in light chamber and higher number of crossing between the light and dark chambers byextract treatment in light-dark box test also supported the anxiolytic behavior. The obtained resultssupported the antidepressant-like and anxiolytic-like effects of ethanol extract of T.chebula in mice. (c) 2021 Center for Food and Biomolecules, National Taiwan University. Production and hosting by ElsevierTaiwan LLC. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Automated summary

The ethanol extract of Terminalia chebula fruit exhibited antidepressant-like and anxiolytic-like effects in mice, reducing immobility time, increasing swimming time, and improving behaviors in various behavioral tests, as well as decreasing MAO-A activity in the brain as shown by the study.