Abstract

ANXIOLYTIC CONSTITUENTS FROM STELLARIA MEDIA LINN

Disha Arora* and Anupam Sharma

Abstract

Bioactivity guided fractionation of the anxiolytic methanol extract has led to the isolation of two compounds — A1 and A2. The effects of both the compounds in five assays predictive of anxiolytic activity in mice of either sex were studied, with diazepam as anxiolytic control. Structures of A1 and A2 characterized by IR, 1H NMR, 13C NMR, MS techniques were found to be 6-methylheptyl-3′-hydroxy-2′- methylpropanoate and 2,2,4-trimethyloctan-3-one. Both these new compounds (ester and ketone), isolated from Stellaria media were found to be responsible for the anxiolytic activity of the plant.

Keywords: Stellaria media, Bioactivity guided fractionation, Anxiolytic.