Pharmacological characterisation of anticonvulsant effects elicited by erythrartine

The erythrinan alkaloids erythravine and 11α-hydroxy-erythravine from Erythrina verna (Vell.) have been extensively investigated for their anxiolytic and anticonvulsant effects. Both are structurally similar to the erythrartine that also exhibit anxiolytic effects, but there is no report on its anticonvulsant potential. Since some anxiolytic drugs can be useful in the management of epileptic seizures, we investigated whether erythrartine could prevent seizures induced by different chemoconvulsants.

Experiments were performed using different concentrations of erythrartine injected via intracerebroventricular in rats submitted to pilocarpine, kainic acid, pentylenetetrazol or picrotoxin-induced seizures. Moreover, the rotarod test was performed to verify the effects of erythrartine on animal motor coordination.

Our data showed for the first time that erythrartine prevented the occurrence of seizures induced by all of the chemoconvulsants tested and did not affect locomotor performance neither produced sedative effect on animals.

Obtained results validate the ethnopharmacological significance of E. verna and provide new information on erythrartine, another erythrinian alkaloid of biotechnological and medicinal interest.