Antitussive Effect of Rosa damascena in Guinea pigs

Several therapeutic effects including hypnotic, antispasmodic, treatment of abdominal and chest pain and strengthening the heart have been described for the flowers of Rosa damascena. North American Indian tribes use a decoction of the roots obtained from the Rosa damascena plant as a cough remedy and to treat eye problem. Therefore, in the present study the antitussive effect of this plant in guinea pigs was evaluated. The antitussive effect of aerosols of two differ­ent concentrations of ethanolic extract (5 and10% w/v), aqueous extract (10 and 20% w/v), codeine, and saline were tested counting the number of cough produced due to aerosol of citric acid 10 min after exposing animal to aerosols of different solutions (n=6 for each solution). The results showed a significant reduction in the number of coughs obtained in the presence of both concentrations of ethanolic extract, higher concentrations of aqueous extract and codeine (P<0.001 for all cases). The number of coughs obtained in the presence of higher concentrations of extract was less than that of lower concentrations. However, this difference was only statisti­cally significant for the aqueous extract. In addition the numbers of coughs obtained in the presence of both concentrations of ethanolic extract and higher concentrations of aqueous extract were not significantly different from that of codeine. These results indicated the antitussive effect of Rosa damascena, which was comparable to codeine at concentrations used.