BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

Epilepsy is one of the most common serious neurological conditions. The current therapeutic treatment of epilepsy with modern antiepileptic drugs is associated with side effects, dose-related and chronic toxicity, and teratogenic effects and in approximately 30% of the patients is ineffective. is used in Iranian traditional medicine for treatment of different diseases like back pain and seizure.

METHODS

In this study, anticonvulsant effects of hydroalcoholic extract of rhizomes were examined by using pentylentetrazole (PTZ) model in mice. rhizomes extract (200, 400 and 600 mg/kg), diazepam (1 mg/kg) and normal saline (10 mL/kg) were injected (ip) 30 minutes before PTZ (90 mg/kg, ip). The time taken before the onset of clonic convulsions, the duration of colonic convulsions, and the percentage of seizure and mortality protection were recorded. For further clarification of the mechanism of action for , flumazenil (2 mg/kg, ip) and naloxone (5 mg/kg, ip) were also injected 5 minutes before extract.

RESULTS

extract at the doses of 200 and 400 mg/kg prolonged the time of onset of seizure and decreased the duration of seizures compared to control (saline) group ( < 0.05). At the dose of 600 mg/kg, percentage of seizure protection was 16.66%. Naloxone and flumazenil could suppress anticonvulsant effects of .

CONCLUSIONS

It seems that could be a good candidate and be useful for seizure control and treatment, and in these effects, opioid and benzodiazepine receptors might probably be involved.