Introduction: Against cough activity from Guiera senegalensis' leaves has been previously scientifically studied. However, to the best of our knowledge, active principles responsible of this activity were not yet identified. Thus, we undertook this work with the aim to evaluate the effect of total alkaloids from plant's leaves in cough induced in guinea pig by ammoniac inhalation.
Material and methods: Guinea pigs were divided up in 5 groups of 10 and were crammed with distilled water (control), total alkaloids with 10, 25 and 30 mg/kg and codeine with 50 mg/kg. They were then exposed to ammoniac inhalations and the number of coughs was counted every hour, after cramming, during 5 min.
Results: Our results show, after 5 hours, with the doses of 15, 25 and 30 mg/kg per os, that total alkaloids induce against cough activity, 2 hours after cramming (p < 0.01) and the difference was still significant 3, 4 and 5 hours after (p < 0.001). These alkaloids effects were comparable with codeine activity which was used as reference product.
Conclusion: Total alkaloids of Guiera senegalensis present an against cough activity and would be responsible of against cough activity of the plant.