PHYTOCHEMICAL INVESTIGATION AND PHARMACOLOGICALEVALUATION OF ANNONA SQUAMOSA L. STEM BARK EXTRACTS FOR MEMORY ENHANCING ACTIVITY

Soni Dangat, Dr. S. K. Sarje*, A. V. Ingle, Sumit Bodke, S. A. Tekale, Dr. N. B. Ghiware

The medicinal plant Annona squamosaL. is one of the traditionally important plant used for the treatment of various ailments. It belongs to the family Annonaceae. The synonyms of plant are Custard apple.The bark of the plant Annona squamosa L. is a powerful astringent & is stated to be given as a tonic. It is well distributed in tropical regions specially in India. This plant has been used as anti-epileptic, anti-helminthic, anti-bacterial, anti- spasmodic agent; it is also used in the treatment. The present study reports physicochemical characterization and memory enhancing activity ofextracts from Annona squamosa stem bark collected from local region of Nanded, Maharashtra, India. Different physical parameters like ash value, extractive value, loss on drying, solubility, etc. were evaluated for powdered drug.The extracts were obtained fromSoxhlet method byusing hot extraction method with the solvents pet-ether, methanol and ethyl acetate. Phytochemical standardization was undertaken todetect the presence of bioactive agents along with TLC and chemical tests.The in –vivomemory enhancing activity was evaluated by using radial maze arm and Morris water maze test in rats to measure the evaluation parameter of particular modal. From the acute toxicity studies as per reference standard and on the basis of the literature survey for ethyl acetate and methanolic extract of Annona squamosa extract of stem bark, maximum and minimum therapeutic experimental safe dose was found to be 200 mg/kg and 100 mg/kg respectively. The results suggest that ethyl acetate and methanolic extract of Annona squamosaL. stem bark extract possess memory enhancing activity, although themethanolic extract of Annona squamosa L. shows superior activity thanethyl acetate extract. This might probably due to presence of flavonoids and phenolic content and other phytoconstituents present in plant extract.