Antidepressant-Like Effects of Selected Crude Extracts of Pilea microphylla in Mice Model of Depression

The present study was undertaken to investigate the effect of selected crude extracts namely, Methanol (ME I), Chloroform Extract (CE II) and Ethyl Acetate (EAE II) extracts of Pilea microphylla on depression in mice. In the present study, the antidepressant effect of P. microphylla was examined due to its rich flavonoid contents in the Urticaceae family using two behavioral models, the Forced Swimming Test (FST) and Tail Suspension Test (TST) in mice. Selected crude extracts from Pilea microphylla produced an antidepressant-like effect, since the acute treatment of mice with extracts by intraperitoneal (i.p.) route significantly reduced the immobility time in the FST (50 and 100 mg kg^-1) and TST (50 and 100 mg kg^-1), as compared to positive controls (haloperidol and fluoxetine) at 1 and 10 mg kg^-1, respectively. The results showed that ME I, CE II and EAE II at dose of 100 mg kg^-1 of body weight decreased immobility time with the increase swimming time with respect to the first day (p<0.05). Among all the three selected extracts with two doses administered there were differences compared to the control group, EAE II led to reduction of immobility time, in the FST method by 38.50% for 50 mg kg^-1 to as much as 75.97% for 100 mg kg^-1. Similar results of increased antidepressant effect, that was, of immobility time depending on the concentration administered, were obtained with the TST method. However, EAE II and CE II extract at dose of 100 mg kg^-1 were obtained as best to choose an antideprssant activity. However, amounts of phenolic and flavonoid groups were found in CE II extract. As a conclusion treatment using selected crude extracts of P. microphylla had an antidepressant-like effect across models. Reduced immobility and decreasing freezing were observed in FST and TST tests. Therefore, P. microphylla may be served as a potential resource for natural psychotherapeutic agent against depression. The present study clearly demonstrated that Pilea microphylla exerts an antidepressant effect in these two behavioural models. It may be due to present of flavonoids. This is consistent with the hypothesis that enhanced uptake of flavonoids groups might have antidepressant-like effects. However, further studies are still required.