Vol. 2, Issue 1, Part A (2020)

The marine world offers an extremely rich resource for important compounds of structurally novel and biologically active metabolites. Traditionally, mangrove plants are used in folklore medicine for the treatment of several ailments throughout worldwide. Though numerous mangroves and mangal associates are recommended in traditional medicine as active against various diseases, very little attempts have been made to investigate the veracity of these assertions in controlled experiments. Acanthus ilicifolius Linn, (sea holly) (acanthaceae) is popularly recognized for its full scope of secondary metabolites and its traditional usage and this saline plant found along with mangroves in the coastal regions of India commonly in the southeast coasts. The leaves of Acanthus ilicifolius were collected, shade dried, pulverized into the coarse powder and subjected to defatting with petroleum ether and then extracted with ethanol using Soxhlet apparatus. Evaluation of ethanolic extract of leaves of Acanthus ilicifolius on CNS depressant. Various tests namely Forced Swimming Test (FST), Tail Suspension Test (TST) behavioural study were performed in mice.In FST extract at the doses of 100, 250, and 500mg/kg significantly P< 0.0001 increased the immobility times when compared with the control group. In case of TST significantly increase the immobility time with increase in dose when compared to standard drug. These depressive pattern may be due to the drug interact with GABA ergic system.