Antidepressant-Like Activity of Banana Peel Extract in Mice

Problem statement: Depressed mood, loss of interest or pleasure, feeling guilty, low selfesteem, sleep disturbance, loss of appetite, low energy and poor concentration are the characteristics of depression. This common mental disorder can occur in anyone regardless of genders, ages and backgrounds. People counteract it with psychotherapy and medications. Alternatively, some patients use herbal remedies as treatments. Recently, natural herbal products that have antidepressant effect has gain more attention in the market. Banana peel is commonly used to treat warts, as diuretics, aids in detoxification and relive hangovers. This research was conducted to study the effects of banana peel extract against depression. Approach: Swiss Albino mice were used in this study. Acute Toxicity Study (ATS) was being carried out by injecting 4 doses of the green and yellow banana peel extract each to different mice groups. Six groups of mice were treated with different treatments (normal saline 5 mL kg^-1, green banana peel extract 200 and 400 mg kg^-1, yellow banana peel extract 200 and 400 mg kg^-1, Fluoxetine HCl 20mg kg^-1, p.o.) for 7 consecutive days before mice were subjected for Forced Swim Test (FST) and Tail Suspension Test (TST). Results: The result shows that green banana peel extract 400 mg kg^-1 significantly reduces the duration of immobility (p<0.01) compared to control in FST. In TST, green banana peel extract 400 mg kg^-1 and yellow banana peel extract (200 and 400 mg kg^-1) showed significant result (p<0.001) compared to control. There were no signs of acute toxicity observed for the extracts in ATS. Conclusion/Recommendations: This research suggested that the banana peel extracts exhibits antidepressant-like effects. Further studies maybe conducted on locomotor activity study and phytochemical screening.