PRELIMINARY STUDIES ON THE BEHAVIOURAL EFFECTS OF THE METHANOL EXTRACT OF LEONOTIS NEPETIFOLIA LINN STEM IN MICE

Antidepressant-like effects of a methanol extract of Leonotis nepetifolia in mice

This study evaluated the antidepressant-like effects of a methanol extract of Leonotis nepetifolia in behavioural tests in mice. Our results showed that a single administration of the extract significantly reduced immobility behaviour in the tail suspension test, while three administrations were necessary to diminish immobility behaviour in the forced swimming test. A daily dose of the extract for 28 days improved body weight gain and significantly reduced corticosterone levels of mice exposed to chronic unpredictable mild stress. Metabolic profiling of the extract revealed that nepetaefolin, methoxynepataefolin, and 7-O-β-glucoside luteolin were the main products. Acute and repeated administration of the extract produced antidepressant-like effects in animals subjected to chronic stress. Our results suggest the hypothalamus-hypophysis-adrenal axis participates in the antidepressant actions of the extract. These results show that alterations in behaviour elicited by stress can be prevented with L. nepetifolia treatment.

Members of the family <i>Lamiaceae</i> Lindl. as sources of medicinal plant raw materials to obtain neurotropic drugs

The aim of this work is to review and analyze the data published in the modern scientific literature obtained in pharmacological, pharmacognostic and pharmacotechnological studies of various types of raw materials obtained from members of the family Lamiaceae L., which were sources of biologically active substances, pharmaceutical substances, total extracts and the drugs – with a neurotropic activity.

Materials and methods. For the review, we used the information of scientific literature from open and accessible sources of the last twenty years, located in the scientific and technical libraries of institutions, as well as in electronic databases: Elibrary, PubMed, Scopus, Cyberleninka, GoogleAcademy, J-Stage. The search inquiries were: the species of the family Lamiaceae (Russian and Latin), the samples of medicinal plant materials based on them as well as the names of the drugs and biologically active substances obtained from these raw materials.

Results. When working with the sources of scientific information, the main attention was paid to pharmacologic tests performed during the studies on laboratory animals and proving the presence of neurotropic activity in the studied objects – essential oils and extracts from plant raw materials: aqueous, aqueous alcoholic, and methanol ones. It has been established that the potential of the therapeutic and preventive application of pharmaceutical substances and drugs based on the medicinal plant materials obtained from 30 genera members of the Lamiaceae family, remains unrealized despite the close attention of various researchers.

Conclusion. This review comprised 71 species from 30 genera. Despite the significant level of the previous study presented in the analysis of this publication, an enormous potential of this family’s species remains unexplored. In the future, they can be of both – pharmacognostic and practical interest, in particular, in creation of new medicinal preparations of the neurotropic action based on them.