Abstract

Introduction: Cassia sieberiana (Fabaceae) is a tropical plant that has been reported to be used in Nigerian traditional medicine for the treatment of general body pain, ulcer, dysmenorrhea and diarrhoea often without scientific validation. The aim of this work was to carry out phytochemical screening, toxicity evaluation and antidiarrhoeal activity studies of the methanolic extract of C. sieberiana root. Methods: The anti-diarrhoeal activity was evaluated using the experimental models of castor oil-induced diarrhoea, gastrointestinal motility test and castor oil-induced enteropooling in mice. Loperamide was used as reference drug. Results: Phytochemically, the extract revealed the presence of flavonoids, terpenoids, tannins, saponins, glycosides and anthraquinones. The extract did not cause death nor show any sign of acute toxicity in the mice at the tested doses, thus implying that it was well tolerated by the mice. The different doses (100, 200 and 400 mg/kg) of the extract showed dose dependent and significant (p