Memory Enhancing Property of Santalum album L. on Mice
Padmavathi
ABSTRACT:
A lot of medicinal plants, traditionally
used for thousands of years, are present in a group of herbal preparations of
the Indian traditional health care system (Ayurveda) named Rasayana proposed
for their interesting anti-oxidant activities. But the recent study suggests
that herbal drugs have a complex pathology to cure Alzheimer’s disease.
Alzheimer’s disease is an age related neuro degenerative condition associated
with cognitive. Among the different plants, one of them has been specially
investigated that they have the Anti-oxidant property. A number of plants
constitute the Anti-oxidant activity, in
which one of them is “Santalum album L.”
. It was described in one of the siddha system that S. album possesses the
property of increasing the memory and cognitive. And also in the Ayurvedic
formulation Smruthi leha also
described that S.album having the property to decrease dementia in older
people. Male albino mice of weighing around 15-20 gm which are one month old
were taken for study. The mice were divide into seven groups, in each group a
minimum of six animals are taken. They are induce with β-amyloid protein
for memory loss. These memory lossed animals are treated with the alcoholic
extract of Santalum album L. for a
period of 30 days. Then the enzyme estimation is performed on these mice. The
results shows that the Santalum album
has the property of increased enzyme levels. That it gives the conclusion that Santalum album L. is having the memory enhancing property.
KEY WORDS:
INTRODUCTION:
Planet earth has more than 50 million
species of plants, animals and microorganisms and hardly 2 million of them have
been described by man so for.
Plants have been used in the treatment of
various diseases from time immemorial. Out of 4,80,000 species of plants only
3,22,311 have been identified. There are 20,000 to 25,000 species of flowering
plants are growing on earth which belong to 10,500 genera are source of drugs.1
Natural products are obtained from plants,
animals, or mineral kingdom and, so these are called as drug of biological
origin. Most of the crude drugs used in medicine are obtained from plants and
only a small number comes from animal and mineral kingdom. Drugs obtained from
plants consist of entire plants or their parts. Generally out of the total of
about 2,25,000 species of know plants, about 33,000 are claimed to have
medicinal properties.2
Brief
account on Alzheimer’s disease:
Alzheimer’s disease is
a progressive neuro degenerative disorder which effects older individual and is
the most common cause of dementia. Atropy of cortical and sub cortical areas is
associated with deposition of β-amyloid
protein in the form of senile plaques and formation of neurofibrillary tangles13. There is a marked cholinergic deficiency in
the brain and also some of the other transmitter system are also affected.
As it is a complex neuro degenerative disease with
cognitive behavioral and neurological manifestations.
It was first discribed in1906 by the German
psychiatrist and neuropathologist “Aloi’s Alzheimers”. Alzheimer’s disease is
heterogeneous and can be divided into Early Onset Alzheimer’s Disease (EOAD),
and Late Onset Alzheimer’s Disease (LOAD)14.
Early onset Alzheimer’s disease is caused by autosomal
dominant mutation in the APP gene on chromosome 21, the presenilin-1 gene (PS1)
on chromosome 14 or the presenilin-2 gene (PS2) on chromosome114.
The Late onset Alzheimer’s disease is associated with
the presence of Apolipoprotien E (APOE) of the ε.4 allele. The most
important risk factor for the development of late on set Alzheimer’s disease
(LOAD) is increasing age14.
Most common causes of
Alzheimer’s disease:
The slowly progressing destruction of nerve cells in
the brain causes the AD.
The causes of Alzheimer’s disease;
1. Amyloid-β peptide deposition(Aβ)
2. Neuro fibrillary Tangles (NFT’S) and Tau
3. Cholesterol
4. Apolipoprotein E4
5. Oxidative damage of Apoptosis
6. Other factors
7. Inflammation (Neuro Inflammation)
8. Trauma
9. Loss of
cholinergic neurons
Aim of the Present Study:
Dimentia is a disorder which is caused due
to loss of neurons in the brain or due to dehydration of acetylcholine in the
nerve junction region or due to accumulation of NFT’s in the neurons.
Currently available drugs for treating Dimentia have
been associated with number of side effects.
Treatment of dimentia involves acetylcholinesterace
inhibitors, antioxidants such as Donepezil, Rivastigmin. The consumption of
synthetic drugs leads to common cold, muscle cramps, diarrohea, vomiting,
nausea, and some metabolic disorders.
Medicinal plants are used for various research
purposes. It has been reported that traditional system has immune potential
against various diseases. More than 13,000 plants have been studied for various
pharmacological properties.
Herbal treatment for memory loss has no side effects
and are local available. They are effective in reducing the oxidation property
in animals.
The present study deals with the “Memory Enhancing
Property of Santalum album in Mice”.
The proper activity is monitored by the anti cholinesterase enzyme levels in
β-Amyloid induced memory loss in mice.
Experimental
methods:
Materials:
Selection
of animals:
Wistar albino male mice of 40, weighing 80
-120 gm from center for animal house of kings institute, Gundy, Chennai. The
animals were allow to acclimatize to the environment for 7 days and supplied
with a standared pellet diet and water. The congenial temperature 30 Oc
± 2 Oc and 12 hrs light and dark cycle were maintained.
Chemicals:
Amyloid – β – protein fragment 25 – 35
which was obtained from SIGMA – ACORICH, INC
Experimental
induction of memory loss in animal models:
β-amyloid is protein having a high molecular
weight which causes the damage of the neurons in brain i.e., causes the memory
loss.
Memory loss was induced to group I, II, III,
IV, V, &VII animals by intra cranio ventricular route through a hamliton
micro liter syringe and the dose is 10 micro liters per each animal.
Experimental
design:
The mice were divided into 7 groups
comprising of 3 animals in each group (for safety purpose minimum of 6 animals
in each group we maintained, for statistical analysis only 3 animals in each
group is taken into account).
Group
I : Positive control mice received 0.5 ml of Donapezil
through oral route.
Group
II : Negative control mice received 0.5 ml of the solvent
through oral route
Group
III : Dimenita mice treated with Santalum album extract 0.2 ml is given orally.
Group
IV : Dimenita mice
treated with Santalum album extract
0.4 ml is given orally.
Group
V : Dimenita mice
treated with Santalum album extract
0.6 ml is given orally.
Group
VI :
0.5 ml of solvent
without any induction with β amyloid.
Group
VII : In this group a combined dose of 0.5 ml of
Donpezil and 0.4 ml of medicine dose of Santalum album is given orally.
Experimental
procedure:
Male albino mice of weighing around 15-20 gm
which are one month old were taken for the study.
The mice were treated with graded dose of Santalum album extract. The dose grading
from 50mg/Kg to 400mg/Kg were orally administered to the mice.
The standard Donepezil was also administered
0.5ml for the group I and VII i.e., dementia mice treated with Donepezil.
The treatment was carried out for 30 days
and the acetylcholinesterace is calculated by taking the brain tissue. A normal
group was also maintained with normal water groupVI.
At the end of the experimental period, the animals were
sacrificed by applying intra-peritoneal
thiopentone (thiosol/ Na+). The brain was dissected out and cleaned with
ice-cold saline, blotted dry, and immediately transferred to the ice chamber.
Various oxidative stress and toxicity related biochemical parameters were
estimated. The Animal Ethics Committee of the Institution approved the
procedures.
RESULTS
AND DISCUSSION:
Acetylcholinesterase
levels:
Acetlycholinesterace is one of the important
neuro transmitter which is helpful in the brain for storing the memory. During
memory loss the Ach levels are drastically decreased which results from
decresed in cognitive function.
Amyloid -β induced memory loss which
causes damage in the neuronal junction and there is a decreased in the levels
of Acetlycholinesterase levels in brain. Administration of Ethanolic extract of
Santalum album to midly induced
memory loss mice shows a increased levels in the Acetlcholinesterase.
Glutathione
levels:
In the amyloid-β induced memory loss
mice contains a high amount of the Glutathione levels. But after administration
of the ehanolic extract of Santalum album
for a period of 30 days. There is an change in decreased levels of GSH.
Excess release of Glutathione may cause the
excitotoxity due to high intra cellular concentration of calcium, which causes
neuronal dysfunction and death.
Antioxidant
levels:
The brain derives nearly all the energy from
mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation, which generates ATP at same time as
reducing molecular oxygen to water.
Under certain conditions reactive oxygen species are produced as
side–products of this process.
These Reactive Oxygen species (ROS) attack
many molecules such as membrane lipids and DNA.
These ROS accumulate and neurons become more susceptible to exocitotoxic
damage. The extract of Santalum album has
decreased the formation of reactive oxygen species. Because the Santalum album is having the capacity of
anti oxidant activity.
CONCLUSION:
The plant Santalum album is known as Chandanam in Tamil. The whole property
of the plant is having the medicinal active constituents.
The presence of various medicinally active chemicals
such as Carbohydrates Triterpenoids, Volatile oils.
The biological activity of aqueous extract was
effective for increasing the memory enhancing property. The plant could be
subjected to further studies, which may lead to possibility of isolating the
active principle from the plant.
The above results due to the presence of
biologically active compounds along the trace elements of Santalum album extract exhibits the memory enhancing in the
amyloid-β induced mice.
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Received on 30.10.2009
Accepted on 10.12.2009
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Research J. Pharmacology and
Pharmacodynamics 2(1): Jan. –Feb. 2010: 94-96