Evaluation of anticonvulsant and neuroprotective effects of camel milk in strychnine-induced seizure model

ObjectiveTo discover the use of camel milk as an alternate medicine for the treatment and prevention of convulsions using strychnine-induced seizure model.MethodsThirty animals were divided into three equal groups. Group I was on distilled water, Group II was on camel milk for 15 days prior to experiment and Group III was on reference drug diazepam. On the day of experiment, strychnine was administered in all treatment groups after distilled water, camel milk and diazepam treatments respectively. Animals were observed for 30 min for latency of seizure onset, frequency of convulsions and duration of jerks. The mortality rate was also evaluated for each group.ResultsCamel milk treatment showed significant seizure protection as observed by delayed seizure onset (P ≤ 0.001), decreased total duration of convulsions (P ≤ 0.001) and mortality rate (P ≤ 0.001) when compared with Group I.ConclusionsAnticonvulsant activity of camel milk could be due to potentiation of glycinergic and GABAergic activities both. Antioxidant activity can also amplify its antiepileptic activity. Further studies are required to confirm the exact mechanism of action.