Activity on the Central Nervous System of Himanthalia elongata

Abstract

We report the effects of a fraction (F₁) obtained from Himanthalia elongata on spontaneous locomotor activity, hypermotility, motor coordination, rectal temperature, pentobarbitone-induced hypnosis, pentylenetetrazole-induced convulsions and analgesic activity in the writhing and hot-plate tests. This fraction caused very significant reductions in spontaneous locomotor activity, hypermotility, and rectal temperature. It postponed pentylenetetrazole-induced death and a slight increase of sleeping time was noted in the sodium pentobarbital-induced sleep test. A significant effect was only noted on motor coordination at high doses. F₁ showed significant analgesic effects on the hot-plate test at all of the assayed doses but not on the writhing test, where only the highest dose showed significant activity.

Key words

Himanthalia elongata - Phaeophyceae - CNS - activity - analgesic activity.