Antidepressant activity of extracts from the herbs Astragalus varius and Astragalus testiculatus in the “Tail suspension test”

The aim. To determine the content of flavonoids in aqueous and aqueous-alcoholic extracts from the herbs of Astragalus varius and Astragalus testiculatus and to investigate the antidepressant effect of the extracts in vivo.

Materials and methods. The objects of the study were dried and ground herbs of Astragalus varius S.G. Gmel. and Astragalus testiculatus Pall., collected in the Saratov region during the period of mass flowering (May–June 2021). Aqueous (1:10) and aqueous-alcoholic (1:10, extractant 70% ethanol) extracts were obtained from the raw material. The flavonoid content was determined by differential spectrophotometry at an analytical wavelength of 410 nm in quartz cuvettes with l=1 on a Shimadzu UV-1800 spectrophotometer (Shimadzu, Japan). The study of antidepressant activity was conducted on male mice weighing 32–38 g and aged 2–3 months using the Tail Suspension Test (TST). The animals received the studied extracts at a dose of 100 mg/kg, and amitriptyline at a dose of 10 mg/kg served as the comparison drug. For data evaluation, the Mann-Whitney U-test and Bonferroni correction (p <0.01) were used. To study the strength of the linear relationship between antidepressant activity and flavonoid content, correlation analysis was used (Spearman correlation coefficient at p <0.05).

Results. The flavonoid content in aqueous and aqueous-alcoholic extracts from the herb of Astragalus varius was 2.54 ± 0.04% and 9.31 ± 0.07%, respectively, and in extracts from the herb of Astragalus testiculatus — 1.06 ± 0.05% and 10.34 ± 0.05%, respectively. The aqueous-alcoholic extract of Astragalus testiculatus demonstrated a pronounced effect reliably similar to amitriptyline (p = 0.01) both after a single oral administration and throughout the entire experimental period (21 days). The aqueous-alcoholic extract of Astragalus varius did not show an antidepressant effect after a single administration; however, on days 8, 15, and 21 of administration, a significant (p = 0.01) effect was observed in the animals. Upon administration of the aqueous extract of Astragalus varius, an antidepressant effect was observed on days 1, 15, and 21 of the study (p = 0.01); however, the effect was absent on day 8 of the experiment. The aqueous extract of Astragalus testiculatus, both after single and chronic oral administration of the extract to animals, showed no activity in the experiment (p >0.01).

Conclusion. Aqueous-alcoholic extracts from the herbs of both species exhibited a more pronounced antidepressant effect compared to aqueous extracts. Correlation analysis established that the identified antidepressant activity is associated with the flavonoid content in the studied extracts.

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