The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the antidiarrheal activity of methanol extracts of Brassica nigra flower using castor oil – induced diarrhoea and gastrointestinal motility test using charcoal meal method. The methanolic extract was initially fractioned which was assayed for its effect in castor oil – induced diarrhoea at different doses (200 and 400 mg/kg body weight) followed by its evaluation on the peristaltic movements in charcoal meal test using loperamide as a reference drug. The results of the present study indicated that, administration of the various fractions of methanolic extract of Brassica nigra induced dose-dependent percentages of inhibition of diarrhoea. The antidiarrheal potential of this plant might be due to its high contents of flavonoids and tannins. It could be claimed that, the remarkable antidiarrheal activity of Brassica nigra flower support to its utility in a wide range of remedies of diarrhoea.

Jadhav VD, Bhanuwanshe SM, Patil SP, Chaudhari DV, Adke MB. Antibacterial activity of different plant and callus extracts a comparative study. Int J Sci & Technol Res. 2013; 2(10):285-288.

Louw CA, Regnier TJ, Korsten L. Medicinal bulbous plants of South Africa and their traditional relevance in the control of infectious diseases. Journal of Ethnopharmacology. 2002; 82:147-54.

Anand P, Murali YK, Tandon V, Murthy PS, Chandra R. Insulinotropic effect of aqueous extract of Brassica nigra improves glucose homeostasis in streptozotocin induced diabetic rats. Exp Clin Endocrinol Diabetes. 2009; 117:251-256.

Arumugam N, Mukhopadhyay A, Gupta V, Sodhi YS, Verma JK, Pental D, Pradhan AK. Synthesis of somatic hybrids (RCBB) by fusing heat‐tolerant Raphanus sativus (RR) and Brassica oleracea (CC) with Brassica nigra (BB). Plant breeding. 2002; 121:168-170.

Bell D, Muller CH. Dominance of California Annual Grasslands by Brassica nigra. The American Midland Naturalist. 1973; 90:277-299.

Finley JW, Sigrid-Keck A, Robbins RJ, Hintze KJ. Selenium enrichment of broccoli: interactions between selenium and secondary plant compounds. The Journal of nutrition. 2005; 135:1236-1238.

Banerjee S, Parasramka MA, Sarkar FH. Cellular, molecular and biological insight into chemopreventive and therapeutic potential of 3, 3’-diindolylmethane (DIM). Nutraceuticals and Cancer. 2012; 6:111-133.

Fan S, Meng Q, Auborn K, Carter T, Rosen EM. BRCA1 and BRCA2 as molecular targets for phytochemicals indole-3-carbinol and genistein in breast and prostate cancer cells. British journal of cancer. 2006; 94:407-426.

Wu Y, Feng X, Jin Y, Wu Z, Hankey W, Paisie C, Li L, Liu F, Barsky SH, Zhang W, Ganju R. A novel mechanism of indole-3-carbinol effects on breast carcinogenesis involves induction of Cdc25A degradation. Cancer Prevention Research. 2010; 3(7):818-829.

Chawla S, Aneja S, Kashyap R, Mallika V. Etiology and clinical predictors of intractable epilepsy. Pediatric neurology. 2002; 27:186-191.

Le HT, Schaldach CM, Firestone GL, Bjeldanes LF. Plant derived 3, 3'-diindolylmethane is a strong androgen antagonist in human prostate cancer cells. Journal of Biological Chemistry. 2003; 278(23): 21136–21145.

Havagiray R, Ramesh C, Sadhna K. Study of antidiarrhoeal activity of Calotropis gigantea r.b.r. in experimental animals. J Pharm Pharm Sci. 2004; 7:70–75.

Toyin YM, Khadijat OF, Saoban SS, Olakunle AT, Abraham BF, Luqman QA. Antidiarrheal activity of aqueous leaf extract of Ceratotheca sesamoides in rats. Bangladesh J Pharmacol. 2012; 7:14-20.

Robert K, Egon S, Daniela B, Florian D, Christoph W, Gunter JK, Emil CR. Role of Candida in antibiotic-associated diarrhoea. J Infect Dis. 2001; 184:1065-1069.

Atta AH, Mouneir SM. Antidiarrhoeal activity of some Egyptian medicinal plant extracts. Journal of Ethnopharmacology. 2004; 92:303-309.

Beckett AH, Stenlake JB. Chromatography. In: Practical Pharmaceutical Chemistry. 1996; 2:75-76.

Billah MM, Islam R, Khatun H, Parvin S, Islam E, Islam SA, Mia AA. Antibacterial, antidiarrhoeal, and cytotoxic activities of methanol extract and its fractions of Caesalpinia bonducella (L.) Roxb leaves. BMC complementary and alternative medicine. 2013; 13:101.

Karim A, Mekhfi H, Ziyyat A, Legssyer A, Bnouham M, Amrani S, Atmani F, Melhaoui A, Aziz M. Anti-diarrhoeal activity of crude aqueous extract of Rubia tinctorum L. roots in rodents. Journal of Smooth muscle research. 2010; 46:119-123.

Bakare RI, Magbagbeola OA, Okunowo OW, Green M. Antidiarrhoeal activity of aqueous leaf extract of Momordica charantia in rats. Journal of Pharmacognosy and Phytotherapy. 2011; 3:1-7.

Adeniyi OS, Omale J, Omeje SC, Edino VO. Antidiarrheal activity of hexane extract of Citrus limon peel in an experimental animal model. Journal of integrative medicine. 2017; 15:158-164.

Sengupta R, Ahmed AB. Evaluation of antidiarrheal activity of ethanolic extract of Bauhinia variegate (leguminosae) stem bark in wister albino rats. International Journal of Pharmaceutical and Phytopharmacological Research. 2017; 5:2-7.

Mazumder R, Bhattacharya S, Mazumder A, Pattnaik AK, Tiwary PM, Chaudhary S. Antidiarrhoeal evaluation of Aegle marmelos (Correa) Linn. root extract. Phytotherapy Research: An International Journal Devoted to Pharmacological and Toxicological Evaluation of Natural Product Derivatives. 2006; 20:82-84.

Adeniyi OS, Akomolafe RO, Ojabo CO, Eru EU, Olaleye SB. Effect of zinc treatment on intestinal motility in experimentally induced diarrhea in rats. Nigerian Journal of Physiological Sciences. 2014; 29:11-15.

Tenório JA, Dulciana S, da Silva TM, da Silva TG, Ramos CS. Solanum paniculatum root extract reduces diarrhea in rats. Revista Brasileira de Farmacognosia. 2016; 26:375-378.

Saheed S, Tom AA. Research Article Antimicrobial and Antidiarrheal Activities of Pelargonium luridum (Andrews) Sweet Root Extracts. Pharmacologia. 2016; 7:202-210.

Brijesh S, Daswani P, Tetali P, Antia N, Birdi T. Studies on the antidiarrhoeal activity of Aegle marmelos unripe fruit: Validating its traditional usage. BMC complementary and alternative medicine. 2009; 9:47.