evaluation of the anxiolytic effect of echium amoenum petals extract, during chronic treatment in rat

echium amoenum (boraginaceae), a very popular medicinal plant in iran traditional medicine, is used as a tonic, tranquillizer, diaphoretic, cough and sore throat remedy, and antipneumonia. preliminary phytochemical studies of the plant showed that it contains saponins, flavonoids, unsaturated terpenoids and sterols. in this study, an aqueous extract from petals of this plant was used 125 mg/kg as compared to diazepam 1 mg/kg, i.p., during two different treatment courses, 15 and 30 days. the aqueous extract was prepared by soxhlet apparatus with distilled water. a sample size of 36 rats in 6 groups was selected for this experiment. three groups were treated by saline, diazepam and extract daily for 15 days and the other groups for 30 days. anxiolytic effect of extract was investigated in rat using the elevated plus-maze model of anxiety. after finishing these courses and 30 min after the last injections, the test was performed. the results revealed that in 30-day treatment course, time spent in open arms was significantly higher than that of 15-day treatment in both diazepam and extract groups and this effect was the highest in the diazepam group. so, the results of the study indicated a significant durationdependent increase in time spent in open arms of plus-maze.