In current stressful routine life style, depression has become the second most common chronic condition in clinical psychiatric practice. Echinops echinatus Roxb, (Compositae), commonly known as ‘Brahmadandi’, possesses several medicinal properties; but, little is known about its traditional use as nerve tonic. The objective of the present study was to evaluate the antidepressant activity of methanol extract of roots bark of Echinops echinatus using forced swim behavior despair models. E. echinatus roots were dried and extracted with methanol in soxhlet apparatus for 5-6 hr. Adult Wistar Albino rats were subjected to behavior despair test using Imipramine as reference standard. The alcohol extract of root bark of E. echinatus s (100, 200 and 400 mg/kg, p.o.) showed significant dose-dependent reduction in duration of immobility (P<0.01) in behavior despair test. The phytochemical screening revealed the presence of carbohydrate, sterols, terpenoid, flavonoid, glycoside, phenol and tannins in the roots bark of E. echinatus. The results showed that the plant possesses dose dependent antidepressant activity, confirming the traditional claims. Future research should focus on the isolation and identification of the phytoconstituents responsible for the antidepressant activity of E. echinatus roots.
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