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SUMMARY Diarrhoea is a major health care problem in developing countries. Elettaria cardamomum Matonfruits, commonly known as cardamom are widely used for flavoring purposes in food. In thisstudy we evaluated the antidiarrhoeal activity of hot water extract of cardamom againstexperimental diarrhoeal models on mice. Cardamom extract showed significant antidiarrhoealactivity against castor oil and magnesium sulphate induced models. Whereas, the gastrointestinalmotility was slightly increased. Key words: Antidiarrhoeal; Cardamom; Elettaria cardamomu; Gastrointestinal INTRODUCTION In developing countries diarrhoea is a major publichealth problem and therefore it is important anduseful to identify plants with antidiarrhoealactivity. Diarrhoea ranks second to respiratorydiseases as the cause of non-surgical paediatricadmission and causes one fourth of the avoidabledeaths in hospitalized children. It is one of theleading causes of morbidity and mortality in allage groups, particularly in infants and childrenunder the age of three. The incidence of diarrhoealdiseases still remains high despite the efforts of anygovernments and international organizations (e.g.WHO) to curb it (Agbor et al., 2004).Cardamom, the fruits of Elettaria cardamomumMaton. (Zingiberaceae), are widely used forflavoring purposes in food and as carminative. InUnani system of medicine it is used to treatgastrointestinal disorders (Jamal et al., 2006).Despite its wide uses little information has beenreported on their pharmacological properties,which showed antioxidant (Hinneburg et al., 2006;Vasavada et al.., 2006) and anti-inflammatoryactivity (Al-Zuhair et al.., 1996). Antimicrobialactivity of cardamom was attributed to its essentialoil (Ramadan et al.., 1994; Garg and Jain, 2001).Recently, cardamom showed gastroprotective effectsagainst aspirin and ethanol induced lesions in rats(Jamal et al., 2006). The seeds also showed activityagainst Helicobacter pylori (Nostro et al.., 2005).Cardamom is usually added to the food preparations |
