Several
therapeutic effects including anti-
asthma and
dyspnea have been described for the seeds of Carum copticum In previous studies the relaxant and
anticholinergic (functional antagonism)
effects, histamine (H(1)) inhibitory effect of Carum copticum have been demonstrated on guinea pig tracheal chains. In the present study the
antitussive effect of this plant was evaluated. The
antitussive effects of
aerosols of two different concentrations of aqueous and macerated extracts and
carvacrol,
codeine, and saline were tested by counting the number of
coughs produced due to
aerosol of
citric acid 10 min after exposing animals to
aerosols of different solutions (for
carvacrol n=5 and for other solutions n=6). The results showed significant reduction of
cough number obtained in the presence of both concentrations of aqueous and macerated extracts and
codeine (p<0.001 for extracts and p<0.01 for
codeine). The
cough number obtained in the presence of higher concentration of aqueous and macerated extracts was significantly less than those of lower concentrations (p<0.05 for both extracts). In addition the
cough number obtained in the presence of both concentrations of aqueous and macerated extracts was significantly lower than that of
codeine (p<0.05 to 0.001). However,
carvacrol did not show any
antitussive effect. These results indicated an
antitussive effect of Carum copticum which was even greater than that of
codeine at concentrations used. In addition the
antitussive effect of Carum copticum was not due to its main constituent,
carvacrol.