INTRODUCTION:

Incidences of central nervous system (CNS) diseases are increasing day by day. Among them, epilepsy has now become the most serious brain disorder. A number of synthetic antiepileptic drugs are available in practice but their clinical utility is restricted due to various limitation viz. teratogenicity, drug interactions and memory deficit. Acorus calamus and Argyreia speciosa are Indian medicinal plants. Epilepsy and memory deficit are closely related and generally occurs simultaneously. Also, there are always chances that one disorder may follow other. Through literature survey was performed.

It was found that root part of Acorus calamus and Argyreia speciosa have been evaluated for treating some CNS system disorders. Leaves part of these plants have not been evaluated for its CNS activity [1]^.In present study Acorus calamus and Argyreia speciosa were collected, their authentications were performed. Through literature survey was performed. It was found that root part of Acorus calamus and Argyreia speciosa were studied for few central nervous system (CNS) diseases. Leaves part of the plants were not screen for its different CNS activities. Moreover, their CNS activity in combination and in tablet formulation have not been determined. These two plants were extracted by three different solvents. Extracts of these plants were subjected to different phytochemical analysis. Acute toxicity studies of these plant extracts were performed to determine their safety.

MATERIALS AND METHODS:

Review of Plants:

Acorus calamus (AC):

Acorus calamus (sweet flag) is a tall perennial wetland monocot plant from the Acoraceae family. The scented leaves and rhizomes of sweet flag have been traditionally used as a medicine and the dried and powdered rhizome has a spicy flavor and is used as a substitute for ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg for its odor. A. calamus is probably indigenous to India and now found across Europe, Southern Russia, Northern Asia Minor, China, Japan, Burma, Sri Lanka, and Northern USA.

Vernacular names:

Marathi	:	Vekhand	Kannada	:	Baje gida
Hindi	:	Bach	Konkani	:	Ekhanda
Gujarati	:	bekhand	Urdu	:	Bacha.
Sanskrit	:	Vacha

Taxonomy:

Kingdom:	:	Plantae
Division:	:	Magnoliophyta
Class:	:	Liliopsida
Order:		Acorales
Family :	:	Acoraceae
Genus	:	Acorus
Species:	:	calamus/ A. aromaticus / A. calamus
Other species:	:	Acorus gramineus

Botanical Description:

A. calamus is a perennial plant with creeping and extensively branched, aromatic rhizome, cylindrical, up to 2.5 cm thick, purplish-brown to light brown externally and white internally. The leaves of A. calamus has a single prominent midvein and then on both sides slightly raised secondary veins and many, fine tertiary veins. This makes it clearly distinct from Acorus americanus. The leaves are between 0.7 and 1.7 cm wide, with average of 1 cm. The sympodial leaf of A. calamus is somewhat shorter than the vegetative leaves. The margin is curly edged or undulate. Plants are very rarely flower or set fruit, but when they do, the flowers are 3 to 8 cm long, cylindrical in shape, greenish brown and covered in a multitude of rounded spikes. The spadix, at the time of expansion, can reach a length between 4.9 and 8.9 cm. The fruits are small and berry-like, containing few seeds. Flowers from early to late summer depending on the latitude, grows wild in marshy places up to 2000 m altitude in the Himalayas, Manipur, Naga Hills and in some parts of South India. There are only two species in the genus Acorus. The other species in this genus is Acorus gramineus native to eastern Asia commonly called as Japanese sweet flag, Japanese rush, grassy-leaved sweet flag, dwarf sweet flag is an aquatic or wetland perennial with semi evergreen grass like foliage. It has narrow, 6 to 14 in (15 - 35.6 cm) glossy leaves and looks like thick, lush grass. The leaves are carried in two ranks, like opposing fans. They are flat, about a 0.5 in (1.3 cm) wide and tend to flop over. The insignificant flowers, shaped like little horns, are produced in midsummer on erect hollow stems. Usually, only plants grown in water produce flowers [2].

Argyreia speciosa (AS):

Argyreia speciosa (convolvulaceae) commonly known as ‘Elephant creeper’ is a woody climber distributed throughout the India up to an altitude of 300 meters2. It has been used as ‘Rasayan’ drug in the ayurvedic system of medicine to cure diseases of nervous system. The roots of this plant have been regarded as tonic, aphrodisiac, bitter and used in rheumatism, gonorrhea, chronic ulcer and diseases of nervous system. Previous phytochemical studies reveal the presence of lipids, flavanoids, triterpenes, steroids, phenylpropanoids, and coumarins in the plant. Several investigations have proposed that this plant possess hypotensive, anti-inflammatory, immunomodulator, anti-diabetic, Noo-tropic, antibacterial and antifungal effect. Generally, plants possess many pharmacological actions, since they contain numerous constituents of active chemicals in it

Vernacular Names:

Gujarati	:	Samudrasosh
Hindi	:	Samandar-ka-pat
Kannada	:	Samudraballi
Urdu	:	Samandarsotha.

Taxonomy:

Kingdom	:	Plantae – Plants
Subkingdom	:	Tracheobionta– Vascular plants
Super division	:	Spermatophyta – Seed plants
Division	:	Magnoliophyta – Flowering plants
Class:	:	Magnoliopsida – Dicotyledons
Subclass:	:	Asteridae
Order	:	Solanales
Family	:	Convolvulaceae.
Genus	:	Argyreia Lour. – Argyreia
Species:	:	Argyreia nervosa (Burm. f.) Bojer

Botanical Description:

A very large climber; stem stout, white-tomentose. Leaves are 7.5 - 30.0 cm in diameter, acute, ovate, glabrous above and persistently white-tomentose beneath, base cordate, petioles 5 - 15 cm long and white-tomentose. Flowers in subcapitate cymes; penduncles 7.5 – 15 cm long, stout, white-tomentose; bracts large, ovatelanceolate with a long acumen, thin, veined, pubescent outside, glabrous inside, deciduous the outer sometimes 5 cm long; pedicels very short often almost 0, whitet-omentose, calyx white-tomentose outside; corolla 5 - 6.3 cm long, tubular-infundibuliform, the bands silky pubescent outside, tube somewhat inflated, white pubescent outside, rose purple and glabrous inside. Ovary glabrous, fruit glabrous, 2.0 cm in diameter, apiculate [3, 4, 5].

Collection and authentication of plants:

Leaves of Acorus calamus and Argyreia speciosa were procured from Shri Shail Medi Farm, a medicinal plants supplier at Nagpur Maharashtra. Leaves were shade dried. Drying was sufficient to completely dry the leaves. Sun exposure was avoided to minimise the loss of content and decay of leaves. Dried samples of leaves were submitted to Agharkar Research Institute, Pune. A certificate of authentication and specimen allotment number were issued by the Agharkar Research Institute, Pune. Coarse powdering of leaves of both plants were performed using grounding. Coarse powder was pass through the sieve and fine powder were collected in vessels for further extraction.

Extraction of Coarse Powder:

Phytochemical Investigation:

Phytochemical Investigation were carried out by performing various tests viz. test for detection of carbohydrate, alkaloid, proteins, volatile oils, flavonoids, saponins, phenols, resins, tannins, amino acid, steroids, triterpenoids, anthraquinones and coumarines [8, 21].

Acute toxicity Test:

Acute oral toxicity was performed using OECD 420 guidelines. The IAEC approval no. of the study is 014/2012. Groups of female rats are dosed in a stepwise procedure using the fixed doses of 5, 50, 300 and 2000 mg/kg. The initial dose level is selected on the basis of a sighting study as the dose expected to produce some signs of toxicity without causing severe toxic effects or mortality. Clinical signs and conditions associated with pain, suffering, and forthcoming death, are recorded. This procedure continues until the dose causing evident toxicity or no more than one death is identified, or when no effects are seen at the highest dose or when deaths occur at the lowest dose [7].

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION:

Collection and Authentication of Plants:

AS and AC plants were collected. Plants were authenticated by Agharkar Research Institute Pune. Both plants were found to be authentic. Specimen numbers were allotted to each plants.

Extraction of Plants and Phytochemical Investigations:

Coarse powder is subjected to successive extraction first with less-polar (Petroleum ether) then medium polar (Chloroform) and more polar (Ethanol). These are subjected soxhlet extraction process. The yield obtained is presented in the Table No.1 Phyto-chemical investigations are presented in Table No.2 and Table No.3

Table No. 1: Percentage of yield of Acorus Calamus and Agryreia Speciosa by different solvents

Name of the Plants	Name of the Solvents
Name of the Plants	Petroleum Ether	Chloroform	Ethanol
Acorus Calamus	10.5	12.3	11.9
Argyreia Speciosa	13.4	15.3	10.5

Table No.2: Phyto-chemical Investigations of Acorus Calamus plants by different extract

Extract	Carbohydrate	Alkaloid	Proteins	Volatile Oils	Triterpenes	Flavonoids	Saponines	Phenols	Resins	Tannis
Petroleum Ether	-	+ +	+ +	+ + + +	+ +	-	-	+	+	-
Chloroform	-	-	+ +	+ +	+	+ ++	-	-	+	-
Ethanol	-	+ +	+ +	+	+	+ ++	+ ++	+ ++	+ +	+ +

Table No.3: Phyto-chemical Investigations of Argyreia Speciosa plants by different extract

Extract	Alkaloid	Amino Acids	Flavonoids	Saponines	Steroids	Triterpenoids	Tannis	Carbohydrate	Volatiles Oils	Antraquinones	Coumarines
Petroleum Ether	-	-	+ +	+ +	+ +	-	+ +	+ +	-	-	+
Chloroform	-	-	+ +	+ +	+ +	+ ++	+	+	+ +	-	+ +
Ethanol	-	-	+ +	+ +	+ +	+ +	+	-	+	-	+

Acute toxicity Test:

According to the OECD guidelines 420 the method that in the main study only moderately toxic doses are used, and that administration of doses that are expected to be lethal should be avoided. Also, doses that are known to cause marked pain and distress, due to corrosive or severely irritant actions, need not be administered. No toxic symptoms or mortality were observed in any animals, which lived up to 14 days after the administration of all extract of AC and AS upto the level of 2000 mg/kg body weight.

The behavioural changes of animals were observed first 6 h and followed by 14 h after the administration and the animals in both vehicle treated and extract-treated groups were normal and did not display significant changes in behavior, skin, breathing, impairment in food intake and water consumption, postural malfunction and hair loss.

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Received on 04.05.2016 Modified on 26.05.2016

Res. J. Pharmacognosy and Phytochem. 2016; 8(3): 121-124.

DOI: 10.5958/0975-4385.2016.00022.4