Discovery of anticonvulsant activity of abietic acid through application of linear discriminant analysis

Linear discriminant analysis was performed to derive discriminant functions based on 2D descriptors and capable of classifying anticonvulsant from non-anticonvulsant compounds. Through application in virtual screening of the discriminant function which performed best in the validation steps, abietic acid was identified as a potential new anticonvulsant agent. The anticonvulsant activity of abietic acid at 30 and 100 mg/kg was confirmed in the Maximal Electroshock Test, both orally and intraperitoneally. (c) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.