International Journal of Anatomical Sciences 2012, 3(2): 26-32

Research Paper

Bacopa monniera a Potent Neuroprotector Against Transient Global Cerebral Ischemia Induced Hippocampal Damage and Memory Function

Ramesh Kumar R, Kathiravan K, Muthusamy R.

Department of Anatomy, Dr.A.L.M. Post Graduate Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, University of Madras, Taramani campus Chennai 600 113, Tamil Nadu, India.

Key words: Global cerebral ischemia, Bacopa monniera, Radial arm maze

Abstract: Cerebral ischemia is the major complication associated with the vascular health, next to cardiovascular disease, resulting in irreversible damage to the brain tissues and permanent loss of specific brain functions. Hippocamous is one of the most vulnerable regions of brain for global cerebral ischemic insult with impaired memory. Bacopa monniera (BM) is a well known traditional herbal medicine extensively used as an adjuvant to enhance cognitive development, as well to treat various neurological disorders. The present study emphasis the effect of the prophylactic administration of BM against hippocampal damage and spatial learning induced by Transient Global Cerebral Ischemia (TGCI) by 4VO method in wistar albino rats. Earlier the rats were trained for spatial navigation task in an eight arm radial maze for 10 days and were simultaneously treated with the ethanolic extract of BM, at a dose of 100mg/kg body weight/ ml /day orally for 30 days and then the animals were subjected to TGCI for 15 minutes. After TGCI the rats were tested for the retention of spatial learning and memory in the radial arm maze and the reference memory error, working memory error and latency were determined. The normal pyramidal cell density in the CA1 region of dorsal hippocampus was also counted. The outcome of this study suggests that BM could protect pyramidal cell damage of CA1 region of hippocampus and retention of hippocampal associated spatial learning and memory in the rats pretreated with BM extract, this finding confirms the neuroprotective role of BM against cerebral ischemia.