Antidepressant activity of brahmi in albino mice.

CONTEXT In traditional system of medicine brahmi has been used to enhance memory. Recently it has been reported to have action in psychiatric disorders. With these backgrounds the work has been undertaken to study antidepressant activity of brahmi in albino mice. AIM To evaluate antidepressant activity of brahmi in experimental models. MATERIALS AND METHODS The antidepressant activity was studied in albino mice using forced swimming test (FST), tail suspension test (TST) and shock induced depression (SID). Imipramine (10mg/kg), fluoxetine (30mg/kg) were used as standard drugs and brahmi (10, 20, 30mg/kg) was used as test drug. RESULTS Brahmi exhibited significant decrease in duration of immobility in FST and reduced the shock induced decrease in activity in SID models. It didn't show any activity in the TST model. CONCLUSION Brahmi has shown antidepressant activity in FST and SID.