PHARMACOLOGICAL STUDIES ON ANTIDIARRHEAL EFFECTS OF HANGE-SHASHIN-TO

We attempted to characterize the antidiarrheal action of Hange-shashin -to (TJ-14), a kampo medicine, by comparing its action with that of lo peramide, The oral administration of TJ-14 caused the dose-dependent s uppression of castor oil-induced diarrhea at 250 to 1000 mg/kg, No sig nificant repression was noted by TJ-14 even at 1000 mg/kg, p.o. for di arrhea induced by pilocarpine, serotonin or barium chloride. Oral trea tment with loperamide at 5 mg/kg markedly suppressed diarrhea induced by castor oil and barium chloride. Contractions of isolated guinea pig ileum in response to acetylcholine (1 x 10(-7) g/ml), histamine (1 x 10(-7) g/ml) or barium chloride (3 x 10(-4) g/ml) mere little affected by TJ-14 at 10(-4) g/ml, The responses elicited by the three contract ive drugs were dose-dependently suppressed by loperamide. TJ-14 did no t affect the small intestinal transit even at an oral dose of 1000 mg/ kg, On the other hand, the small intestinal transit was significantly suppressed by loperamide (5 mg/kg, p.o.), These results indicate that TJ-14 can effectively control castor oil-induced diarrhea, and that it s antidiarrheal action was not based on the suppression of intestinal motility.