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ABSTRACT
Diarrhoea has long been recognized as one of the most important health problems and leading causes ofmortality and morbidity in the developing countries. The various treatments available for diarrhoea are drugs like loperamide, bismuth subsalicylate and racecadotril. Due to various side eflects of synthetic drugs like abdominal discomfort, dry mouth, nausea, constipation and headache there are many herbal plants used in the treatment of diarrhoea which act by reducing the gastrointestinal motility and gastric secretion. This work focuses on the plant Afzelia belta which have been traditionally used for their anti-diarrhoeal activity but yet have not been scientifically validated for the claim. Hence this present study which made use of the various experimental animal models available for the evaluation of anti diarrhoeal activity of drugs, namely castor oil induced diarrhoea model, castor oil enteropooling,, gastrointestinal motility test, and magnesium sulphate induced diarrhoea. This was done by measuring the effects ofdifferent doses ofthe extr^cts of Afzelia bella (100,200 and 400 mg/kg) on the diflerent experimental models and the obtained results are compared with the control (3% tween 80). The results showed a significant reduction in the onset and frequency of both castor oil and magnesium sulphate induced diarrhea in rats and mice respectively when compared to control. There were also reductions in transit time and enteropooling in the treated animals which strongly support the position that the Afzelia Bella plants traditional usage in the treatment ofdianhea is rational. However further study is needed for the phytochemical analysis ofthe bioactive components in the plant extract which will result to the full knowledge and understanding of the plant mechanism of action.
