identification of antidiabatic activity strychnos nux-vomica roots

S. Tripathi et al., IJSID 2011, 1 (3), 30-33 

IDENTIFICATION OF ANTIDIABATIC ACTIVITY STRYCHNOS NUX-VOMICA ROOTS 

S. Tripathi*, Y. Emmanuel Prakash, Katragadda Aneela, Golusu. Balakrishna, Devathi Suman Kumar, 

Musunuri Ravi Kumar 

Sri Vasavi Institute of Pharmaceutical Sceinces, Tadepalli Gudem, West Godavari, AP, India 

INTRODUCTION 

INTRODUCTION 

ISSN:2249-5347 

IJSID 

International Journal of Science Innovations and Discoveries An International peer 

Review Journal for Science 

Review Article Available online through www.ijsidonline.info 

Received: 10.09.2011 

Modified: 18.10.2011 

Published: 29.12.2011 

*Corresponding Author 

Address: 

Name: 

Y. Emmanuel Prakash 

Place: 

Andhrapradesh, India. 

E-mail: 

suhnny@gmail.com 

ABSTRACT 

Strychnos Nux-Vomica is a medicinal plant with many more medicinal 

compounds. From literature review, identified that this plant has anti cancer 

activity and also identified that Anti Diabetic activity in vitro conditions. In the 

part of our academic project we are planning to prove anti diabetic activity in 

vivo condition. 

Keywords: Strychnos Nux-Vomica, Antidia Batic, Seeds, Roots, Bark 

International Journal of Science Innovations and Discoveries, Volume 1, Issue 3, November-December 2011 

30


INTRODUCTION 

Strychnos nux-vomica is a medium-sized tree with a short, crooked, thick trunk, the wood is white hard, 

close grained, durable and the root very bitter. Branches irregular, covered with a smooth ash coloured bark; 

young shoots deep green, shiny; leaves opposite, short stalked, oval, shiny, smooth on both sides, about 4 inches 

long and 3 broad; flowers small, greeny-white, funnel shape, in small terminal cymes, blooming in the cold season 

and having a disagreeable smell. Fruit about the size of a large apple with a smooth hard rind or shell which when 

ripe is a lovely orange colour, filled with a soft white jelly-like pulp containing five seeds covered with a soft 

woolly-like substance, white and horny internally. The seeds are removed when ripe, cleansed, dried and sorted; 

they are exported from Cochin, Madras and other Indian ports. The seeds have the shape of flattened disks densely 

covered with closely appressed satiny hairs, radiating from the centre of the flattened sides and giving to the seeds 

a characteristic sheen; they are very hard, with a dark grey horny endosperm in which the small embryo is 

embedded; no odour but a very bitter taste. Nux Vomica contains the alkaloids, Strychnine and Brucine, also traces 

of strychnicine, and a glucoside Loganin, about 3 per cent fatty matter, caffeotannic acid and a trace of copper. The 

pulp of the fruit contains about 5 per cent of loganin together with the alkaloid strychnicine. 

Availability 

The Strychnine tree (Strychnos nux-vomica L.) also known as Nux vomica, Poison Nut, Semen strychnos 

and Quaker Buttons, is a deciduous tree native to India, southeast Asia, a member of family Loganiaceae. 

Medicinal Application 

The propertiesof Nux Vomica are substantially those of the alkaloid Strychnine. The powdered seeds are 

employed in atonic dyspepsia. The tincture of Nux Vomica is often used in mixtures - for its stimulant action on the 

gastro-intestinal tract. In the mouth it acts as a bitter, increasing appetite; it stimulates peristalsis, in chronic 

constipation due to atony of the bowel it is often combined with cascara and other laxatives with good effects. 

Strychnine, the chief alkaloid constituent of the seeds, also acts as a bitter, increasing the flow of gastric juice; it is 

rapidly absorbed as it reaches the intestines, after which it exerts its characteristic effects upon the central nervous 

system, the movements of respiration are deepened and quickened and the heart slowed through excitation of the 

vagal centre. The senses of smell, touch, hearing and vision are rendered more acute, it improves the pulse and 

raises blood pressure and is of great value as a tonic to the circulatory system in cardiac failure. Strychnine is 

excreted very slowly and its action is cumulative in any but small doses; it is much used as a gastric tonic in 

dyspepsia. The most direct symptom caused by strychnine is violent convulsions due to a simultaneous stimulation 

of the motor or sensory ganglia of the spinal cord; during the convulsion there is great rise in blood pressure; in 

some types of chronic lead poisoning it is of great value. In cases of surgical shock and cardiac failure large doses 

are given up to 1/10 grain by hypodermic injection; also used as an antidote in poisoning by chloral or chloroform. 

Brucine closely resembles strychnine in its action, but is slightly less poisonous; it paralyses the peripheral motor 


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nerves. It is said that the convulsive action characteristic of strychnine is absent in brucine almost entirely. It is 

used in pruritis and as a local anodyne in inflammations of the external ear. 

Poisoning and Antidotes 

In cases of poisoning by strychnine an emetic or the stomach pump should be used at once and tannin or 

potassium permanganate given to render the strychnine inactive. Violent convulsions should be controlled by 

administration of chloroform or large doses of chloral or bromide. Urethane in large doses is considered an 

antidote. Amyl nitrite is also useful owing to its rapid action during the convulsion, and in absence of respiration 3 

to 5 minims may be hypodermically injected. 

The effects on the sensorium are as follows: There is indisposition to mental exertion, and particularly to 

that form which involves the elaboration and connections of subjective ideas independently of external objects 

(subjective ratiocination). The prover easily errs in speaking or writing. This corresponds with a certain manual 

clumsiness. Vertigo is produced, with momentary loss of consciousness, obscuration of vision and staggering. It 

occurs more particularly while eating and immediately after eating; when walking and even when lying down in 

bed. It resembles vertigo produced by alcohol; for which, indeed, Nux is a specific remedy. 

Effect of Nux Vomica on Body Organs 

Head: Nux produces, moreover, confusion and dullness in the head, especially in the morning and after meals and 

also great and bewildering heaviness, especially on stooping. The headache is pressing, tensive and drawing. It 

affects chiefly the forehead and the supra-orbital region. Sometimes extending through the base of the brain to the 

occiput, it is sometimes described as a feeling of internal soreness, as though one had received a blow with an ax. 

With the acute headache are conjoined almost always qualmishness, nausea and even vomiting. When the prover 

walks, the brain feels shattered. Externally the scalp is sensitive and sore. Rhus toxicodendron has the sensation 

when the patient walks, and especially when he goes upstairs, as if at every step or rising the brain were loose and 

struck against the skull; hence worse from motion. China has, along with a sensation of great fullness in the head 

and outward pressure in the temples, a feeling as if the brain were balancing to and fro within the cranium and 

were striking against the skull, occasioning great pain and obliging one to move the head (hence better from 

motion). 

Face: The chief symptoms noted on the face are small papules,—some of which even contain pus, isolated, 

occurring on the forehead, cheeks and scalp, a kind of acne. Nux is a remedy for the acne which is aggravated by 

eating cheese, although the great constipation sometimes produced by cheese is relieved by Colocynth. 

Eyes: Drawing and pressing pains in the eye-lids, the margins of which become thickened and sore, the lids are 

agglutinated in the morning, in the eyes themselves biting, burning and itching, relieved by rubbing. The 

conjunctiva sometimes becomes very red, and there is great photophobia.Clinical experience has led me to regard 

morning and forenoon photophobia as especially indicating Nux vomica. The patient covers the eyes or buries the 

head in a pillow in the forenoon, and looks around without suffering in the afternoon. . As regards the special sense, 


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there have been observed a glittering appearance just outside the field of distinct vision, and also black and gray 

points floating before the eyes. 

Other Species in this Family 

Strychnos tieute, a clumbing shrub growing in Java, gives a juice termed Upas tieute, said to be used by the 

natives as an arrow poison; it produces death by violent convulsions, the heart stopping before respiration. S. 

toxifera yields the deadly poison Curare (Woorari or Urari) used by the natives of British Guiana. S. ligustrina, the 

wood of which contains brucine, as does the bark. 

S. pseudo is found in the mountains and forests of India. It supplies the seeds known as clearing nuts. The 

fruit is black, the size of a cherry, containing only one seed; fruit and seeds are used medicinally in India and also to 

clear muddy water, the seeds being rubbed for a minute inside the vessel and the water then allowed to settle; 

their efficiency depending on their albumen and casein contents acting as a fining agent similar to those employed 

to clarify wine and beer. S innocua, the fruit and pulp are harmless and are eaten by the natives of Egypt and 

Senegal. S Ignatii is found in the Philippines, the seeds containing strychnine and brucine, strychnine being present 

in greater quantity than in Nux Vomica. A tincture made from the beans is official in the British Pharmacopoeia 

Codex. 

CONCLUSION 

Based on the complete study and results, it proves that STRYCHNOS NUX-VOMICA plant root have Anti diabetic 

activity and other studies were under progress. 

REFERENCES 

1. Arnold, M.D., Harry L. (1968). Poisonous Plants of Hawaii. Tokyo, Japan: Charles E. Tuttle Co. p. 20. 

2. David Michael Wood et al. Case report: Survival after deliberate strychnine self-poisoning, with toxicokinetic data. Critical 

Care October 2002 Vol 6 No 5 

3. Duddukuri GR, Brahmam AN, Rao DN"Suppressive effect of strychnos nux-vomica on induction of ovalbumin-specific IgE 

antibody response in mice." Indian J Biochem Biophys. 2008 Oct;45(5):341-4 

4. Lee SM, Kwon JI, Choi YH, Eom HS, Chi GY.,"Induction of G2/M arrest and apoptosis by water extract of Strychni Semen in 

human gastric carcinoma AGS cells." Phytother Res. 2008 Jun;22(6):752-8 

5. Akbar S, Khan SA, Masood A, Iqbal M"Use of Strychnos nux-vomica (Azraqi) seeds in Unani system of medicine: role of 

detoxification." Afr J Tradit Complement Altern Med. 2010;7(4):286-90 

6. Han QB, Li SL, Qiao CF, Song JZ, Cai ZW, Pui-Hay But P, Shaw PC, Xu HX.,"A Simple Method to Identify the Unprocessed 

Strychnos Seeds used in Herbal Medicinal Products." Planta Med. 2008 Mar;74(4):458-63 

7. Hofbauer R, Pasching E, Moser D, Frass "Heparin-binding epidermal growth factor expression in KATO-III cells after 

Helicobacter pylori stimulation under the influence of strychnos Nux vomica and Calendula officinalis"., Homeopathy. 

2010 Jul;99(3):177-82M 

8. Grieve, M.. "Nux Vomica". Botanical.com, a Modern Herbal. 3 Nov 2010. 

9. "Strychnos Nux-vomica". American Cancer Society. Retrieved 3 Nov 2010. 


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identification of antidiabatic activity strychnos nux-vomica roots

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