DOI: 10.36347/sajb.2015.v03i08.005

Pages: 668-675

Stress is considered to cause psychosomatic disorders. A group of plant based drugs, the adaptogens, increase the capacity of body to respond to stressful stimuli. Panax ginseng, a known adaptogen was taken as a standard drug. The present study evaluated adaptogenic/antistress potential of high altitude medicinal plant, Centella asiatica in a widely accepted immobilization stress model in rats. Male SD rats were exposed to immobilization once for 150 min only in acute stress and 7 consecutive days for chronic stress. This model has been shown to induce significant physiological, biochemical and neurochemical perturbations during acute and chronic stress exposure which could be attenuated by putative adaptogenic agents in rats. After stress, rats were sacrificed immediately, blood was collected and plasma separated for biochemical estimation. The biochemical estimation of plasma glucose, triglycerides, cholesterol, corticosterone and creatine kinase in stressed rats pretreated with Centella asiatica at different doses (100, 200 and 400 mg/kg, p.o) showed that it imparted adaptogenic/antistress activity.