Cirsium palustre extracts as potential modifiers of colon motility in functional gut disorders – an ex vivo study

Inflammatory bowel disease and many other functional gastrointestinal disorders represent a modern global threat to human health. Due to the complex etiology of the problem, the available treatment methods do not completely cure the disease and thus are not entirely satisfactory, and new treatment alternatives are intensively searched for. Thus, the study was aimed to verify the usefulness of Cirsium palustre (L.) Scop. (Asteraceae) extracts to modify colon dysmotility. The experiments were performed on an alternative experimental model of swine colon specimens, which can be used in translational medicine. Intestine preparations were incubated in modified Krebs-Henseleit solution under isometric conditions. The experiments included evaluating the effect of methanolic and 50% methanolic extracts of C. palustre on the spontaneous and acetylcholine(ACh)-induced contractility of colon smooth muscle [1]. An analytical approach based on LC-ESI-MS was applied to obtain a metabolite profile of analyzed extracts. The results revealed significant and dose-dependent potency of both C. palustre extracts to modify colon motoric activity. Both

extracts increased dose-dependently (0.00001-0.1 mg/mL), the spontaneous colon contractility reached over 1.5 fold enhancement of primary activity compared to the control treatment. The opposite effect of both extracts was observed in the case of ACh-evoked contractility. C. palustre decreased the magnitude of ACh-induced reaction dose-dependently. In the case of methanolic extract, the reduction was slightly more potent and resulted in a reaction amounting to approx. 60% of control ACh contraction. The results of the performed study indicate that C. palustre can be considered a valuable, antispasmodic agent to address gastrointestinal hypermotility problems.

Publication History

Article published online:
13 December 2021

• References

• 1 Mendel M., Chłopecka M., Latek U., Karlik W., Tomczykowa M., Strawa J., Tomczyk M. Evaluation of the effects of Bidens tripartita extracts and their main constituents on intestinal motility – an ex vivo study. J Ethnopharmacol 2020; 259: 112982