Antidepressant, anxiolytic, antipyretic, and thrombolytic profiling of methanol extract of the aerial part of <i>Piper nigrum</i>: In vivo, in vitro, and in silico approaches

Abstract

<i>Piper nigrum</i> L. also called black pepper is popular for its numerous uses. The present research is designed to investigate the pharmacological potential of methanol extract of <i>Piper nigrum</i> (MEPN). The antidepressant investigation was performed by using both in vivo forced swimming test (FST) and tail suspension test (TST) methods while the anxiolytic research by hole-board test (HBT) method. Again, the antipyretic analysis was conducted through yeast-induced pyrexia method, whereas clot lysis activity was employed by the thrombolytic method. Furthermore, <i>in silico</i> studies followed by molecular docking analysis of several secondary metabolites, pass prediction, and ADME/T were evaluated with AutoDock Vina, Discovery Studio 2020, UCSF Chimera software PASS online, and ADME/T online tools. The plant extract demonstrated dose-dependent potentiality in antidepressant, anxiolytic, antipyretic, and thrombolytic activities. Induction of MEPN produced a significant (<i>p</i> < .5, <i>p</i> < .001) increase of mobility in FST and TST, and increased the head dipping and decreased the latency of time (<i>p</i> < .01, <i>p</i> < .001) in HBT. MEPN 400 (mg/kg; b.w.; p.o.) lowered the rectal temperature of yeast-induced pyrexia substantially (<i>p</i> < .001). Besides, MEPN produced promising (<i>p</i> < .001) clot lysis activity. In the computational approach, among all the proteins, a docking score was found ranging from -1.0 to -7.90 kcal/mol. Besides, all the compounds were found safe in ADME/T study. The results of our scientific research validate the suitability of this plant as an alternative source of novel therapeutics.