Abstract
Problem statement: Cognitive impairment is one important problem in post-menopausal women. Although hormone therapy can improve this condition, it also produces adverse effect. Recent findings showed that this condition could be mitigated by the herb. Ginger or Zingiber officinale Roscoe, a plant in a family of Zingiberaceae, was previously demonstrated the neuroprotection and cognitive enhancing effects. Therefore, this study was set up to determine whether ginger rhizome extract could improve attention and working memory of the post-menopausal women. Approach: Sixty healthy post-menopausal women were randomly assigned to receive either placebo or standardized plant extract at doses of 400 and 800 mg once daily for 3 months. After the assessment of biographic information, they were evaluated the working memory and cognitive function using computerized battery test and the auditory oddball paradigm of event related potential before and after 3-month of intervention. Results: The ginger treated group decreased N100 and P300 latencies but increased N100 and P300 amplitudes in accompany with the enhanced working memory including the power of attention, continuity of attention, speed and quality of memory. Conclusion: Our results suggested that ginger is the potential cognitive enhancer for post-menopausal women. However, further researches are still required.
Highlights
Episodic memory decline and attention impairment are recognized as the important disturbances commonly found in post-menopausal period and normal aging (Weber and Mapstone, 2009; Perfect and Maylor, 2000; Halbreich et al, 1995)
Recent findings showed that this condition could be improved by Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) (Khoo et al, 2010; Sherwin, 2005; Rocca et al, 2010)
Pre-dose baseline score Post-dose score 3 month officinale on event-related potential potential components (ERP) components were shown in Table 2 N100 latency Placebo 116.80±1.385 112.50±8.26 and Fig. 2
Summary
Episodic memory decline and attention impairment are recognized as the important disturbances commonly found in post-menopausal period and normal aging (Weber and Mapstone, 2009; Perfect and Maylor, 2000; Halbreich et al, 1995). Ginger or Zingiber officinale is belonging to Zingiberacae family. It has been long-term used as both spicy and medicine in Asian, Indian and Arabian folklore. It was found that ginger could suppress acetylcholineasterase (Oboh et al, 2010) and improved memory impairment in animal model of stroke (Watthanatorn et al, 2011). Ginger has been long-term used in traditional folklore to enhance memory, less clinical evidence is available until now. The present study was carried out to determine the effect of ginger extract on working memory and attention in postmenopausal women.
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