RESUMO
Stress is thought to impair immune function through emotional or behavioral manifestations thus the present study was done to assessed the effect of ethanolic extract of Butea frondosa [BF] leaves on behaviour, immunomodulatory activity and brain acetyl cholinesterase activity in normal and stress induced male rats. Neuroprotective effects of BF, doses [100,200,400mg/kg p.o] were measured by assessing the changes in the behaviour and the immunity of the rats. In stress control, the results indicated that the retention transfer latency, time spent in a closed arm, agglutination , total leukocytes counts [TLC], total paw edema ,size of spleen , decreased significantly [p<0.01] while glucose level, size of the kidney and the liver, AChE activity increased significantly [p<0.01] in comparison with normal control. In BF [200mg/kg] treated rats, the results indicated that the time spent in a closed arm [p<0.01], agglutination [p<0.01], TLC [p<0.01], total paw edema [p<0.05], size of spleen[p<0.01] , increased significantly while glucose level [p<0.01], size of the kidney and the liver [p<0.01], AChE activity [p<0.01] decreased significantly in comparison with stress control. This study therefore concluded that the ethanolic extract of BF [200mg/kg] showed a protective effect against the stress induced impaired immune system and the psychological disorders