![Sample our Bioscience journals, sign in here to start your access, Latest two full volumes FREE to you for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5925/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Bioscience.jpg"})
ABSTRACT
Hot infusion of Nyctanthes arbo-tristis. Linn. (Oleaceae) flowers are used often by some elderly Sri Lankan Buddhist monks as a potential sedative. However, in Ayurvedic, traditional and folkloric medicine of Sri Lanka, no such implication has been made regarding therapeutic activity of these flowers. The aim of this study was to investigate the sedative potential of N. arbo-tristis. flowers in rats using the hole-board technique. A hot flower infusion was made as used by the monks in different concentrations (3.7, 7.5, 12.5, or 18.7 mg/kg) and was orally administered. Sedative potential was assessed 2 h post-treatment. The infusion had a moderate dose-dependent conscious sedative activity in male but, surprisingly, not in female rats. The infusion was well tolerated (in terms of overt toxic signs, liver or kidney functions) even following subchronic treatments and also did not show any overt signs of dependence (classical signs of withdrawal reactions). Sedation appears to result mainly by antioxidant, membrane stabilizing, and by yet undiscovered mechanisms of sedative actions of anthocyanin, a flavonoid, in the flower.