Objective: To compare the effect of Magnolia officinalis and M. officinalis var. biloba on gastrointestinal motility dysfunction.
Method: The gastrointestinal motility dysfunction induced by atropine and L-Arg were used in this study. The effect of M. officinalis on the gastrointestinal function was evaluated by propulsive motility of the total gastrointestinal tract test by recording the time of excreting carbo medicinalis, the gastric residualrate, the intestinal propulsion rate, the serum levels of D-xylose, motilin (MTL) and gastrin (GAS). ED50 were calculated with Bliss's method.
Result: M. officinalis and M. officinalis var. biloba improved the gastrointestinal motility, decreased the gastric residual rate, enhanced the intestinal propulsion rate and increased serum levels of D-xylose, motilin (MTL) and gastrin(GAS). The ED50 value of M. officinalis var. biloba was much higher than that of M. officinalis.
Conclusion: The effect of improving gastrointestinal motility of M. officinalis was proved to be superior to that of M. officinalis var. biloba.