AGFD 67 |
| Morinda citrifolia is a small tropical evergreen shrub or tree indigenous to Pacific Islands, Southeast Asia, and some other areas, and commonly called Noni. The fruit of Noni has been used for the treatment of many diseases including cold, flu, diabetics, hypertension and cancer in fork medicines for thousands of years. Among its broad medicinal applications, Noni was reported to have sedative and anxiolytic effects in vivo. In our study, in vitro biological mechanism of Noni as an anxiolytic is explored. The experimental result indicated that methanol crude extract of Noni exhibited 75% inhibition on the binding of [3H] muscimol to the gamma-aminobutyric acid A (GABAa) inhibitory neurotransmitter receptors at a concentration of 100 µg/mL. Further phytochemical study revealed that active ligands are located at hydrophilic portion of Noni, butanol and water fractions showed 78% and 81% inhibitory effects to the radioligand binding to GABAa receptors (100 µg/mL), respectively. This study demonstrated that Noni contains GABAnergic ligand(s) which can competitively bind to GABAa receptors as an agonist to elicit the sedative and anxiolytic effects of Noni. |
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General Posters
1:00 PM-3:00 PM, Monday, 11 September 2006 Moscone Center -- Hall D, Poster
Sci-Mix
Division of Agricultural & Food Chemistry |