TY - JOUR ID - 7734 TI - Sophora alopecuroides L. var. alopecuroides alleviates morphine withdrawal syndrome in mice: involvement of alkaloid fraction and matrine JO - Iranian Journal of Basic Medical Sciences JA - IJBMS LA - en SN - 2008-3866 AU - Kianbakht, Saeed AU - Hashem Dabaghian, Fataneh AD - Research Institute for Islamic and Complementary Medicine, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran Y1 - 2016 PY - 2016 VL - 19 IS - 10 SP - 1090 EP - 1095 KW - Leguminosae KW - Mice KW - Opioid withdrawal KW - Sophora alopecuroides DO - 10.22038/ijbms.2016.7734 N2 - Objective(s): Evaluation of the Sophora alopecuroides var. alopecuroides seed effects on morphine withdrawal syndrome in mice and determination of the alkaloid composition of the seed total extract. Materials and Methods:The effects of the seed total extract, alkaloid fraction and major compound matrine on the mice morphine withdrawal syndrome were compared to saline and methadone.Mice were made dependent on morphine by morphine sulfate injection 3 times a day for 3 days. The withdrawal jumping and diarrhea were induced by administration of naloxone 2 hr after the 10th injection of morphine sulfate on the day 4. The total extract (100, 200, 300 mg/kg), alkaloid fraction (5, 10, 20 mg/kg), matrine (5, 15, 30 mg/kg), methadone (10 mg/kg) or saline were injected 30 min before naloxone. All drugs were administered by subcutaneous injection. The total extract alkaloid composition was also determined by gas chromatography (GC) and GC-MS analysis. Results:All doses of the total extract, alkaloid fraction andmatrine as well as methadonedecreased jumping and diarrhea significantly compared to the saline. The effects of the total extract and alkaloid fraction were not significantly different from methadone. But, there were significant differences between the effects of matrine and methadone. Matrine, cytisine, sophoridine, n-methyl cytisine, sophocarpine and sophoramine were the major alkaloids. There was no nicotine in the total extract.  Conclusion:S. alopecuroidesvar. alopecuroides suppresses opioid withdrawal with efficacy comparable to methadone. Matrine may be one of the alkaloids responsible for the effect of the plant. UR - https://ijbms.mums.ac.ir/article_7734.html L1 - https://ijbms.mums.ac.ir/article_7734_c32ee43e882b8783bdf22f903f04254e.pdf ER -