Preliminary Screening of Herbal Plant Extracts for Anti-venom activity against Common Sea Snake (Enhydrina schistosa) Poisoning.

Various Indian herbal plants were screened for antivenin activity against common sea snake venom Enhydrina schistosa. As the venom of Enhydrina schistosa is the most toxic among the common sea snakes, an attempt was made to screen 12 plants from different families for antivenin potential. Alcoholic extracts of authenticated plant materials were examined for their venom neutralization ability using in-vitro and in-vivo methods. The alleviation in the mean survival time of experimentally protected laboratory animals were used to infer the antivenom property of the drug, after challenging with median lethal venom dose. Mean survival time study indicated appreciable protective action of three herbal extracts namely Mucuna pruriens, Mimosa pudica and Andrographis paniculata among the 12 screened plants. Mean survival time was higher in in-vitro experiments as compared to the in-vivo experiments.