Diuretic activity of Alternanthera sessilis r.br. Ex d.c. An ethnomedicine of chhattisgarh (india)

Amit Roy¹* and S. Saraf²

¹GRY Institute of Pharmacy, Borawan, Khargone - 451 228 (India) ²Institute of Pharmacy, Pandit Ravishankar Shukla University, Raipur- 492 010 (India)

ABSTRACT: Alternanthera sessilis has been used to treat a wide assortment of diseases including diarrhea and dysentery (intestinal disorder), as a diuretic, as a cooling agent to treat fever, hepatitis, tight chest, bronchitis, asthma and lung troubles among others. We evaluated the diuretic activity of the chloroform insoluble fraction of defatted ethanolic extract of whole plant of A. sessilis (CIAE). Diuretic activity was determined in rats, by administering a single dose and thereafter determining the cumulative urine output. CIAE profoundly increased the cumulative urine out put (159.92%) compared to 142.09% increase by furosemide (13mg/kg). The extract altered the urinary pH. It also provoked a significant (p < 0.001) increase in urinary excretion of Na+ but lowered very slightly the excretion of K+, thus altering the Na+/K+ ratio, suggesting a potassium-sparing effect. The results justify the use of A. sessilis as diuretic agent in the traditional medicine

KEYWORDS: Chhattisgarh; ethnopharmacology; Alternanthera sessilis; diuretic

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