Abstract
Introduction: In the management of neurodegenerative and neuropsychiatric diseases, memory loss remains very challenging. Saraswatharishtam (SWRT) is an ayurvedic formulation prescribed for several neurological ailments like acute anxiety, partial memory loss, slurred speech, neuro-degenerative diseases like Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s etc. Methods: Present study explores the possibilities of curative effects of SWRT on Scopolamine induced memory impairment and to compare the effects of commonly used drug Piracetam. Adult Wistar Swiss albino mice were used for this experiment and divided into five different groups for the treatments of the drugs in various combinations. The first group was vehicle treated control while the second group was treated with scopolamine to induce memory impairment. The third groups of animals were treated with Scopolamine where the mice were pretreated with standard neuro-protective drug Piracetam, while the fourth and fifth groups of animals were treated with scopolamine and the animals were pretreated with SWRT at the doses of 200 and 400 mg/kg respectively to compare with the effect of Piracetam. Scopolamine was administered on day eight, only for 45 minutes in all the cases (Group I- Group V). Several neurobehavioral parameters were examined to confirm the neuro-protective effects of SWRT. Results: Saraswatharishtam significantly reversed the memory loss in mice model as revealed from elevated plus maze, radial maze and rectangular maze experiments justifying its neuroprotective potential as observed in usually used synthetic Piracetam. SWRT was found to be nontoxic and very promising antioxidant recorded from acute and chronic toxicological studies. Conclusions: It is suggested that SWRT, could be used as safe and easily available Ayurveda medicine to treat neurological dysfunctions without any side effects. Further translational research is needed to explore its neuro-protective potential.
Highlights
In the management of neurodegenerative and neuropsychiatric diseases, memory loss remains very challenging
We did not find any noticeable changes in locomotor activity of the SWRT treated mice after 60 minutes of the drug administration when compared to the saline injected controls (Table 3)
In vivo antioxidant activity results strongly indicate the antioxidant properties of SWRT which augurs well with medicinal activities especially reinstate memory and learning function
Summary
In the management of neurodegenerative and neuropsychiatric diseases, memory loss remains very challenging. Some reports on the anti-amnesic roles of plant derived medicines as compared to Piracetam on scopolamine induced memory loss in animal models are available.[4] Scopolamine is a centrally acting muscarinic cholinergic antagonist used in animal experiments to induce memory impairment.[5,6] Scopolamine is commonly used as model for characterization of potential cognition enhancing drugs. Several studies reported that Scopolamine induced memory impairment in animal model is closely associated with the brain.[7,8,9,10] Piracetam comes under smart drugs used for neuro-protection on experimental animals since last three decades.[11,12] This drug plays a critical role in enhancing acetylcholine function through muscarinic cholinergic receptors and these receptors play a vital role in memory and learning.
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