Welcome to International Journal of Anatomy and Research

Type of Article: Original Research

Year: 2016 | Volume 4 | Issue 2 | Page No. 2238-2244

Date of Publication: 30-04-2016

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.16965/ijar.2016.186

NEUROPROTECTIVE ROLE OF ACORUS CALAMUS AND IT’S ACTIVE PRINCIPLE BETA ASARONE IN RETAINING THE MEMORY OF RATS USING 8 ARM RADIAL MAZE

C. Venkatramaniah *¹, A. Mary Antony Praba ², B. Mohammed Ismail ³.

^*1 Associate Professor, Department of Anatomy, Tagore Medical College, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India.

²Associate Professor, Department of Anatomy, Tagore Medical College, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India.

³ Professor, Department of Anatomy, Anna Medical College, Mauritius.

Address: Dr. C.Venkatramaniah, Associate Professor, Department of Anatomy, Tagore Medical College, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India.
E-Mail:fio7rio@yahoo.co.in

ABSTRACT

Background: The hippocampus is a part of the temporal lobe of our brain and is also a part of the larger medial temporal lobe memory system responsible for general declarative memory. It plays an important role in the consolidation of information from short-term memory to long-term memory with involvement in the detection of novel events, places and stimuli. Severe damage to the hippocampus results in profound difficulties in forming new memories and to some extend affects memories formed before the damage. As our memory plays a major role on our daily activities and memory loss becoming a threat to the society, we planned this study to find a way to prevent this situation by protecting the brain using a herb.
Materials and Methods: We used adult male Sprague Dawly rats for this study. Animals were divided into 8 groups and were given the drugs Acorus calamus extract or its active principle Beta Asarone in different concentration 10 days prior to lesion surgery and 10 post operative days intraperitoneally (IP) . The neuroprotective role of the drug employed was analyzed by analyzing the memory of the animals in 8 arm radial maze.
Results: Those animals provided with drugs were performed well in 8 arm radial maze by retaining the memory against the lesion control group animals and proved the neuroprotective ability of the drug employed in this study but the LC animals were not at all interested in moving from the arm where they were placed because of anxiety and memory loss.
Conclusion: Based on the observations and results it was concluded that beta asarone was a powerful neuroprotector as it was retaining the memory of the animals by protecting the hippocampus even after kainic acid lesion. Not only beta asarone the ethanolic extract of Acorus calamus also has its efficacy in nervous system as it contains beta asarone as active principle.
KEY WORDS: Acorus Calamus, Beta Asarone, Retaining Memory, Ethanolic.

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C. Venkatramaniah, A. Mary Antony Praba, B. Mohammed Ismail. NEUROPROTECTIVE ROLE OF ACORUS CALAMUS AND IT’S ACTIVE PRINCIPLE BETA ASARONE IN RETAINING THE MEMORY OF RATS USING 8 ARM RADIAL MAZE. Int J Anat Res 2016;4(2):2238-2244. DOI: 10.16965/ijar.2016.186