A Comparative Study on the Anticonvulsive Effects of the Aqueous Extract of the Melissa Officinalis Plant with Phenobarbital in Pentylenetetrazol-Induced Seizures on Mice

Convulsive disorders are among chronic diseases, which usually need a long-term drug therapy. Unfortunately, most of the drugs used clinically to treat these disorders exert many side effects. Therefore, search for finding new drugs is being carried out in many laboratories.

The object of this research was to compare the anticonvulsive effect of the aqueous extract of the plant Melissa officinalis with Phenobarbital in Pentylenetetrazol (P)-induced seizures on mice.

After acclimatization, animals were randomly divided in different groups. Control group received normal saline (6ml/kg), standard groups received (10, 20, 30 and 40 mg/kg) Phenobarbital and the test groups received aqueous plant extract (3, 6, 9 and 12 ml/kg). All injections were carried out as i.p. All animals were firstly exposed to P (80mg/kg, i.p). The onset of seizures, behavioral changes, duration of the seizures and number of deaths were recorded in all groups during the first 24 hours.

All doses of the plant extracts delay the onset of seizures but the most effective dose was 12ml/kg, which was comparable to phenobarbital (30mg/kg). All amounts of the extract, except 3ml/kg, significantly reduced the duration of seizures compared to the control group. Number of deaths was 45 and 10 percent in control, standard and test groups, respectively.

Findings showed that 12ml/kg of the aqueous plant extract is able to reduce the onset of seizures, duration of seizures and number of deaths after 24 hours in Pentylenetetrazol-induced seizures.