Antidepressant, anxiolytic, antipyretic, and thrombolytic profiling of methanol extract of the aerial part of Piper nigrum: In vivo, in vitro, and in silico approaches

Nazim Uddin Emon; Safaet Alam; Sajib Rudra; Susmita Roy Riya; Avi Paul; S M Moazzem Hossen; Ummay Kulsum; Amlan Ganguly

doi:10.1002/fsn3.2047

Antidepressant, anxiolytic, antipyretic, and thrombolytic profiling of methanol extract of the aerial part of Piper nigrum: In vivo, in vitro, and in silico approaches

Food Sci Nutr. 2021 Jan 5;9(2):833-846. doi: 10.1002/fsn3.2047. eCollection 2021 Feb.

Authors

Nazim Uddin Emon¹, Safaet Alam², Sajib Rudra³, Susmita Roy Riya⁴, Avi Paul⁵, S M Moazzem Hossen⁶, Ummay Kulsum¹, Amlan Ganguly⁷

Affiliations

¹ Department of Pharmacy International Islamic University Chittagong Chittagong Bangladesh.
² Department of Pharmacy State University of Bangladesh Dhaka Bangladesh.
³ Department of Botany University Chittagong Chittagong Bangladesh.
⁴ Department of Pharmacy University of Dhaka Dhaka Bangladesh.
⁵ Department of Pharmacy Southern University Bangladesh Chittagong Bangladesh.
⁶ Department of Pharmacy University Chittagong Chittagong Bangladesh.
⁷ Department of Clinical Pharmacy and Pharmacology University of Dhaka Dhaka Bangladesh.

Abstract

Piper nigrum L. also called black pepper is popular for its numerous uses. The present research is designed to investigate the pharmacological potential of methanol extract of Piper nigrum (MEPN). The antidepressant investigation was performed by using both in vivo forced swimming test (FST) and tail suspension test (TST) methods while the anxiolytic research by hole-board test (HBT) method. Again, the antipyretic analysis was conducted through yeast-induced pyrexia method, whereas clot lysis activity was employed by the thrombolytic method. Furthermore, in silico studies followed by molecular docking analysis of several secondary metabolites, pass prediction, and ADME/T were evaluated with AutoDock Vina, Discovery Studio 2020, UCSF Chimera software PASS online, and ADME/T online tools. The plant extract demonstrated dose-dependent potentiality in antidepressant, anxiolytic, antipyretic, and thrombolytic activities. Induction of MEPN produced a significant (p < .5, p < .001) increase of mobility in FST and TST, and increased the head dipping and decreased the latency of time (p < .01, p < .001) in HBT. MEPN 400 (mg/kg; b.w.; p.o.) lowered the rectal temperature of yeast-induced pyrexia substantially (p < .001). Besides, MEPN produced promising (p < .001) clot lysis activity. In the computational approach, among all the proteins, a docking score was found ranging from -1.0 to -7.90 kcal/mol. Besides, all the compounds were found safe in ADME/T study. The results of our scientific research validate the suitability of this plant as an alternative source of novel therapeutics.

Keywords: ADME/T; Piper nigrum; antidepressant; antipyretic; anxiolytic; molecular docking; thrombolytic.