Effects of homeopathic remedy dragonfly (anax imperator) on depression, anxiety, analgesia and locomotion in mice

O Mutlu, G Ulak, I Celikyurt, F Akar, E Bektas, F Erden. Kocaeli University Medical Faculty, Pharmacology-41380, Turkey

Homeopathy is the theory and its practice that disease is cured by remedies which produce on a healthy person effects similar to the symptoms of the complaint under which the patient suffers, the remedies being usually administered in minute doses (Ernst, 2002). The basic principle of homeopathy, known as the "law of similars", is "let like be cured by like". Dragonfly (anax imperator) is a homeopathic remedy used in attention deficiency hyperactivity sendrom (adhd), obsessive-compulsive disorder, headache, sinuzitis and influenza.The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of dragonfly on depression, anxiety, analgesia and locomotion in the forced swimming (fst), elevated plus maze (epm), hot plate and open field tests in naive mice. 30-40 g male balb-c mice were treated with dragonfly (D, 30C and 200C) (n=10) intraperitoneally 60 min. before the tests. We used a liquid form of the dragonfly remedy (100ml) which was a mixture of the extracted body fluid of the dragonfly and alcohol (%25). D30C was the 30 times diluted form of the remedy while D200C was diluted for 200 times. Dragonfly was injected as 0.05ml/10g of body weight. The results of this study revealed that (1) In the fst test, D30 (165.8±17.22; p<0.001) and D200 (202.7±5.43; p<0.05) significantly diminished immobility time compared to control group (232.9±3.23) (One-way Anova post hoc Tukey’s test). In the epm test D30 (24.6±10.57; p>0.05) and D200 (51.9±11.14; p<0.05) significantly increased time spent in the open arms compared to control group (9.4±5.73) although effect of D30 was not significant (One-way Anova post hoc Tukey’s test). In the hot plate test both D30 (40.5±4.28; p<0.001) and D200(39.7±5.36; p<0,001) significantly decreased total time of licking the arms compared to control group (87.5±2.56) (One-way Anova post hoc Tukey’s test). In the open field test, D30 (618.95±64.78; p>0.05) and D200 (669,87±51.72, p<0.05) increased the total distance moved compared to control (455.10±43.86); D30 (2.84±0.29; p>0.05) and D200 (3.08±0.23; p<0.05) increased the speed of the animals compared to control (2.08±0.2) although this value failed to reach to a statistically significant level for D30 (One-way Anova post hoc Tukey’s test). D30 (2.86±0.17) also significantly decreased mean distance to zone center compared to control group (3.91±0.32) in the open field test (One-way Anova post hoc Tukey’s test). Our results showed that homeopathic remedy dragonfly exerted antidepressant, anxiolytic and analgesic-like effects in the fst, epm and hot plate tests, and also caused hyperlocomotion and anxiolytic effects in naive mice in the open field test. Future studies are needed to enlighten the effect mechanism of homeopathic remedy dragonfly.

Ernst E (2002) Brıt J Clın Pharmaco 54(6):577–582