The Petal

This snap I have clicked on May 1, 2009 from my sister’s house in Calicut. The object is a petal of Ixora coccinea flower. Ixora coccinea (or Jungle Geranium, Flame of the Woods, and Jungle Flame) is a species of flowering plant in the Rubiaceae family. It is a common flowering shrub native to Southern India and Sri Lanka. It has become one of the most popular flowering shrubs in South Florida gardens and landscapes. Its name derives from an Indian deity. In Malayalam it is called Chethi Poovu. Mainly petals of this flower used for offering to the God in all most all temples in India. It has been reported to possess a number of medicinal properties. It has traditionally been used for the treatment of diarrhea and dysentery. However the claims of Ayurveda have to be validated by suitable experimental models. The present study was therefore undertaken to evaluate the effect of aqueous extract of I. coccinea for its antidiarrheal potential against several experimental models of diarrhea in albino Wistar rats. Here, we report the effects of aqueous extracts of flowers of I. coccinea in the castor oil induced diarrhea model. The gastrointestinal transit rate was expressed as the percentage of the longest distance traversed by charcoal divided by the total length of the small intestine. Weight and volume of intestinal content induced by castor oil were studied by the enteropooling method. Loperamide was used as a positive control. The plant-extract showed significant (P<0.001) inhibitor activity against castor oil induced diarrhea and castor oil induced enteropooling in rats at the dose of 400 mg/kg. There was also significant reduction in gastrointestinal motility in the charcoal meal test. Results obtained in this study substantiate the antidiarrheal effect of the aqueous extract and its use by traditional practitioners in the treatment of diarrhea.