ABSTRACT
Since ancient era, herbal therapy remained as medicine’s backbone which is economic, safer and easily available. Among diverse herbal treasure, Azadirachta indica (Neem) is a highly esteemed tree with several beneficial properties and applications especially known for its incredible therapeutic and ethno medicinal values for humankind. Neem is regarded as free tree of India, wonder tree, Nature’s drug store, Village dispensary, Divine tree, heal all. Although Azadiratchta indica has been proved antimicrobial in nature to the best of our knowledge, its role has not been evaluated in the effect of sleep. Therefore, this study was undertaken to evaluate the role of Azadirachta indica in sleep. To achieve this, a total of forty (40) wistar rats of comparable age, size and weight were used for this study, the animals were organized into eight (8) groups of five (5) rats. Known quantity of the drug (Thiopental Sodium) and the extract (Azadirachta indica) were dissolved in a known quantity of water and the resultant mixture were mixed properly to remove any debris. A stock solution of Azadirachta indica was then obtained, from which the various doses (5, 10, 20, 40, 80, 160, 320mg/Kg) were determined. Group 1: Control group was made up of five animals, these were given 40mg/kg of thiopental sodium only in the experiment, experimental group 2-8 were given 5, 10, 20, 40, 80, 160, 320mg/Kg of Aqueous Azadirachta indica and 40mg/kg of thiopental sodium. The study showed a statistically significant increase in the onset of sleep at lower doses of 5mg/kg and 10mg/kg, in duration, there was a statistical reduction in duration of sleep at the lowest dose (5mg/kg). It can however be inferred that Azadirachta indica may have some clearly definable effects or influence on the central mechanism of sleep, this is obvious from the fact that Azadirachta indica was observed to have the tendency to modify the onset of sleep by prolonging it and reducing sleep duration.
