Antidiarrheal effects of hydromethanolic extract of Combretum dolichopetalum leaves in mice

Objective: To evaluate the antidiarrheal activity of the hydromethanolic extract of Combretum dolichopetalum (C. dolichopetalum) leaves. Methods: The antidiarrheal activity of the hydromethanolic extract of C. dolichopetalum leaves was evaluated by inducing diarrhea with castor oil, testing small intestinal motility and establishing enteropooling models in mice. Five groups of animals were used for each model and were treated as follows: Group A received 10 mL/kg of distilled water, and Group B received loperamide (5 mg/kg) while Groups C, D, E received 50, 100 and 200 mg/kg of hydromethanolic C. dolichopetalum extract, respectively. Results: The pre-treatment of the mice with the extract (50, 100 and 200 mg/kg) caused a significantly dose-dependent decrease in the mean percentage of wet faeces (P < 0.05), compared with the negative control in diarrhea induced by castor oil. The extract reduced the distance travelled by the charcoal meal in the small intestine in a dose-dependent manner in the treated groups, compared with the negative control. The charcoal meal travelled 64.71%, 49.13%, 55.21%, 51.75% and 32.95% of the small intestine length in the groups treated with distilled water, loperamide, 50 mg/kg, 100 mg/kg and 200 mg/kg of C. dolichopetalum extract, respectively. The extract treatment produced a dose-dependent decrease in the mean small intestinal fluid volume, but there was no significant difference (P > 0.05), compared with the negative control. Conclusions: The study shows that C. dolichopetalum leaves possess antidiarrheal activity and validate its use in ethnomedicine for that purpose