Charcoal Meal Test Following Induction of Diarrhea

The effect of the L.ocymifolia leaf and fruit extract on gastrointestinal motility was evaluated as mentioned by Umer et al¹⁷ with little change. Thirty mice of both sexes at random were assigned into five groups (six mice per group) and used following overnight fasting.¹⁸ One hour after a dosing, 0.5 mL of castor oil was given to each animal orally. After an hour of castor oil administration, all mice were given 1 mL of 10% charcoal suspension orally and euthanized after 30 minutes. The small intestine was dissected out and the distance covered by charcoal from a section of the pylorus to caecum was considered and expressed as a percentage of the total distance of the small intestine. The intestine of each mouse was kept in formalin to hold peristalsis and then washed in distilled water before measuring the distance covered by the charcoal. Charcoal movement was expressed as a peristaltic index (PI) as follows:

where A=distance covered by charcoal and B=length of the full intestine. Percentage inhibition was determined as follow:

where APIC=average PI of control and APIT=average PI of the test group.¹⁸