Abstract

Fumaria indica is an Ayurvedic medicinal plant widely used for medicinal purposes by practitioners of many traditionally known health care systems. Earlier we reported anxiolytics-like and stress-alleviating activities of a hydro alcoholic extract of this plant (FI; analytically characterized by its contents of fumaric acid and fumarates; ca. 0.8% in total). In the present study, potential anti-aggressive activity of FI was tested in behavior tests, and efforts were made to identify the involved neurochemical mechanisms. Lorazepam like anti-aggressive effects of seven repeated daily doses of FI (100, 200 and 400 mg/kg/day, p.o.) were observed in all the four tests name foot-shock induced aggression, isolationinduced aggression, apomorphine-induced aggression, and aggression in a resident-intruder paradigm. Statistically significant effects were observed even at the lowest dose tested (100 mg/kg). The effects of the highest dose tested (400 mg/kg) were similar to those of the lorazepam dose (2.5 mg/kg; p.o.). Seven oral daily treatments of rats with FI dose dependently increased benzodiazepine receptor density in their pre-frontal cortex. Such treatment also specifically increased serotonin levels in rat prefrontal cortex, whereas dopamine levels were specifically reduced in rat striatum. These observations indicate that the benzodiazepine receptors as well as brain region specific regulatory mechanisms involved in serotonin and dopamine metabolism are involved in the observed anti-aggressive activity of FI.

Keywords: Aggression, benzodiazepine receptor, Fumaria indica, lorazepam, monoamines, Neurotransmitters, immunomodulatory, libitum, monoamines, Pre-Frontal Cortex, Hippocampus, Hypothalamus, anti-psoriatic, benzodiazepines, n-dipropylacetate.