Evaluation of anti-amnestic activity of few medicinal plants against scopolamine induced amnesia

Abstract

<span style="font-size:11.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;font-family:" times="" new="" roman","serif";mso-fareast-font-family:"times="" roman";="" mso-ansi-language:en-us;mso-fareast-language:en-us;mso-bidi-language:ar-sa"="" lang="EN-US">Dementia is a syndrome of progressive nature, characterized by impairment of memory and loss of intellectual ability. Subsequently, allopathic system of medicine is yet to provide a fundamental cure; it is meaningful to look for novel directions, which would curtail the memory loss seen in elderly patients. We have screened few plants for enhancement of memory and learning in our laboratory as pilot study and found two plants, viz. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Acorus calamus</i> L. and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Gnetum gnemon</i> L. to be more promising than others. Hence, the rationale for this study was to evaluate the prospective beneficial effect of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Acorus calamus</i> and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Gnetum gnemon</i> on learning and memory in rats using Radial-arm maze and Barnes maze and Morris water maze in mice using a repeated acquisition procedure. A suspension preparation of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">A. calamus </i>(200mg/kg) and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">G. gnemon </i>(200mg/kg) was administered orally after completion of the specific training period. Memory loss was induced by Scopolamine (0.4mg/kg <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">i.p.</i>), a muscarinic cholinergic antagonist and a classic amnestic drug. Tacrine (3mg/kg <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">i.p</i>) was used as the standard drug. The data obtained from behavioral and biochemical studies (Acetylcholinesterase, MDA and nitrite estimation) have shown that <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">G.gnemon</i>, and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">A. calamus </i>possessed significant memory enhancing potency. However, further studies are necessitated to identify the exact mechanism of action.</span>