EVALUATION OF ANTIDEPRESSANT ACTIVITY OF SPIRULINA BY USING EXPERIMENTALLY INDUCED DEPRESSED ANIMALS

To investigate the antidepressant activityof the spray dried powder of Spirulinaplantensis which was used for the treatment of depression in different doses and Imipramine is used as standard drug in experimental animals. The evaluation is done by conductingthe followingtests like5-HT induced head twitches, forced swim test, Tail suspension test, Clonidine induced aggression behaviour, L-dopa induced hyper activity and aggressive behavior. The animal models used for conducting the tests are albino mice (20-30 g) of either sex. From the results of all the experimental models it was observed that Spirulina is showing the antidepressant activity which was dose dependent.