Abstract
Many natural bioactive chemicals have been shown to have functional activity, suggesting that they could be useful in the treatment and management of a wide range of chronic conditions. Flavonoids, which include gallic acid (GA), are the most abundant polyphenols found in nature. Skeletal muscle relaxants are drugs that reduce undesired spasms while maintaining awareness and reflexes unaffected. The purpose of this investigation was to determine if GA has any skeletal muscle relaxant properties in experimental animal models.
The muscle relaxant activity of three dosages of GA (5, 10, and 20 mg/kg) was compared to that of normal diazepam (5 mg/kg) utilizing climbing, chimney, and modified Kondziela's inverted tests. An analysis of variance (ANOVA) and a post-ANOVA Tukey multiple comparisons test were used to assess the data.
Animals given 10 and 20 mg/kg of GA had a great deal of trouble climbing up the chain, presumably because their muscles were relaxed. Similarly, rats given a high dose of GA (20 mg/kg) had a significantly (P < 0.05) longer response time in the chimney test, indicating a lack of attention and slowed muscle tone, resulting in problems with motor coordination. In inverted testing, animals given a high dose of GA had a significantly (P < 0.01) reduced holding capacity on the mesh for a longer period of time. A decrease in holding time is caused by a decrease in muscular contraction. The low dose of GA, on the other hand, failed to show muscle relaxant effect in any of the three models.
As a conclusion, our data show that GA has a dose-dependent skeletal muscle relaxant effect when administered orally to mice.