Study of Antidepressant Activity of Garcinia indica(Kokum) Fruit Rind in Wistar Albino Rats

BACKGROUND Depression is a mental disorder which is treatable but detected less often in primary healthcare settings. Therefore, there is a need for an effective treatment strategy for the management of depression. Garcinia indica (Thouars) Choisy is a slender evergreen tree. An invitro animal study has shown that its phytochemical constituent, hydroxy citric acid has the ability to increase serotonin levels in the brain. Hence, the objective of the study was to evaluate the antidepressant activity of ethanolic extract of Garcinia indica fruit rind in animal models of depression and compare it with control and standard drugs, imipramine, and fluoxetine. METHODS The study was conducted on Wistar albino rats of either sex. The animals were grouped into five, containing six animals in each group. Control (0.1 % carboxymethylcellulose, 10ml/kg), ethanolic extract of Garcinia indica (GIEE1) – 250mg/kg, ethanolic extract of Garcinia indica (GIEE2) – 500mg/kg, Standard1 - Imipramine – 10mg/kg ( Forced Swim test only) and Standard2 - Fluoxetine – 20mg/kg (Tail suspension test only). Drugs were administered for 14 days and antidepressant activity was evaluated on the 14th day after one hour of drug administration using two models - Forced swim test and tail suspension test. Results were tabulated as mean ± SEM (standard error of mean). One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) followed by Tukey Kramer test was used to interpret the statistical significance. RESULTS The period of immobility was obtained as 21.83 ± 1.44 and14.66 ± 2.74 in forced swim test and 36.8 ± 1.01 and 14.3 ± 0.954 in tail suspension test in GIEE1 and GIEE2 treated groups respectively, which was significantly less compared to control. CONCLUSIONS Garcinia indica has significant antidepressant activity compared to the control. KEY WORDS Antidepressant, Garcinia indica, Fruit Rind, Wistar Albino Rats