Anticonvulsant Effects of Trigonella foenum-Graecum L. in Strychnine Induced Epilepsy Model

Background: Epilepsy is the 2nd greatest prevalent brain ailment after stroke, and a huge load on health system. Currently available antiepileptic drugs are associated with a lot of adverse effects and exhibit erratic pharmacological effects; hence it is crucial to explore newer anticonvulsant medications having better side effect profile and enhanced pharmacological effects because of the lengthy duration of treatment of epilepsy. Plants are rich source of various bioactive compounds. Numerous plants have been authenticated to be the source of safe and effective medicines and served as substitute to modern medicine. Method: In this study, anticonvulsant action of Trigonella foenumgraecum L. was evaluated in rats by strychnine induced convulsions at three different doses after 14 days of continuous administration. Diazepam at 1mg/kg was consumed as a standard drug. The time to onset of first convulsion, number of convulsions, and duration of convulsions, mortality rate and percent protection was recorded for each animal. Present study was specifically designed to evaluate the anticonvulsant effects of T. foenum-graecum L. Seeds methanol extract. Result: Administration of TFGS-ME for 14 days to rats exhibited significant delay in onset of convulsion at 50 and 100 mg/kg while highly significant delay at 200mg/kg comparable to diazepam. Frequency of convulsion was also decreased significantly at 100 and 200 mg/kg, comparable to diazepam. Duration of convulsion was also decreased significantly at all the three doses given in comparison to control animals. Percent protection in animals received TFGS-ME at 200mg/kg was 90% within 24 h as compared to 10% protection in control animals. Conclusion: Present study gives enough evidences regarding the potential of T. foenum-graecum L. as anticonvulsant agent.