Abstract

Previous studies from our laboratory demonstrated that the antianxiety and antioxidant activities of the roots of the blue variety of Clitoria ternatea were greater compared to the white variety. An attempt has been made to investigate the antianxiety and antioxidant activities of aerial parts of this plant using elevated plus maze and 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl assay, respectively. Methanol extract of stems and leaves of the blue variety (50, 100 or 200 mg/kg, p.o.), diazepam (2 mg/kg, p.o.) and control (vehicle) were separately evaluated for antianxiety activity. The stem extract (200 mg/kg) and leaf extract (100 or 200 mg/kg) exhibited significant antianxiety activity with respect to control and standard. The remaining doses did not exhibit any antianxiety activity. Mice treated with the blue variety leaf extract, showed decresed number of entries from 6.20 to 4.60 when the dose was increased from 100 to 200 mg/kg indicating a possibility of decreased locomotor activity, which could be due to cental nervous system depressant activity. In case of blue variety stem extract, the average number of entries increased from 3.20 to 5.80 as the dose was increased from 100 to 200 mg/kg. The IC50 values of ascorbic acid, blue variety stem extract and leaf extract were found to be 20.01, 264.32 and 251.13 µg/ml, respectively. None of the plant parts showed activity close to that of ascorbic acid. Finally, it can be concluded that aerial parts of blue variety of C. ternatea exhibited mild antianxiety and antioxidant activities.