Abstract
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common progressive neurodegenerative disorder, characterized by cognitive decline with insufficiency of acetylcholine in brain. Acetylcholine is broken down by acetylcholinesterase enzyme and many allopathic medications as acetylcholinesterase inhibitors are used for palliative AD treatment but these are expensive and not devoid of side effects. Therefore, there is a need for cost-effective indigenous remedies with minimal side effects and better efficacy. For this reason, methanolic extracts of natural herbs such as saffron (S) and chamomile (C) are considered for AD treatment in this study. Acetylcholinesterase and butyrylcholinesterase inhibition activity of methanolic extracts of both herbs S and C have been evaluated and found to strongly inhibit these enzymes. Fifty white albino Wistar rats roughly 2 years old and weighing approximately 300 grams were randomly divided into five groups of healthy controls (HC), diseased controls (DC), and test groups S (10mg/kg), C (30mg/kg), S + C (10mg/kg+30mg/kg). DC and test group rats were given intraperitoneal injection of streptozotocin 60mg/kg body weight once to develop diabetes. The controls were given normal saline while the test animals were given saffron and chamomile in doses of 10mg/kg and 30 mg/kg respectively for a period of ten days. Behavioral tests for exploration and memory were evaluated through open field test (OFT), elevated plus maze test (EPMT), novel object recognition test (NORT). The comparison was made between the groups and the analysis showed that the exploration and memory in DC decreased significantly in the OFT, EPMT, NORT, whereas a significant improvement was observed in the test groups treated with medicinal plants. However, S+C group results in all the behavioral tests were analogous to HC but on the other hand showed significant improvement when compared with the behavioral tests of S, C and DC groups. Therefore, it has been concluded that herbs as saffron and chamomile with strong acetylcholinesterase and butyrylcholinesterase activities can bring betterment in the age-related brain dysfunctions as dementia and despair that are hall marks of AD. These indigenous herbs may become a prospective treatment modality in people with AD.
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