Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2013 May 30:13:121.
doi: 10.1186/1472-6882-13-121.

In-vitro evaluation of selected Egyptian traditional herbal medicines for treatment of Alzheimer disease

Shereen K Ali, Ahmed R Hamed, Maha M Soltan, Usama M Hegazy, Esameldin E Elgorashi, Ibrahim A El-Garf, Ahmed A Hussein

In-vitro evaluation of selected Egyptian traditional herbal medicines for treatment of Alzheimer disease

Shereen K Ali et al. BMC Complement Altern Med. .

Abstract

Background: Egyptians recognized the healing power of herbs and used them in their medicinal formulations. Nowadays, "Attarin" drug shops and the public use mainly the Unani medicinal system for treatment of their health problems including improvement of memory and old age related diseases. Numerous medicinal plants have been described in old literature of Arabic traditional medicine for treatment of Alzheimer's disease (AD) (or to strengthen memory).

Methods: In this study, some of these plants were evaluated against three different preliminary bioassays related to AD to explore the possible way of their bio-interaction. Twenty three selected plants were extracted with methanol and screened in vitro against acetylcholinesterase (AChE) and cycloxygenase-1 (COX-1) enzymes. In addition, anti-oxidant activity using DPPH was determined.

Results: Of the tested plant extracts; Adhatoda vasica and Peganum harmala showed inhibitory effect on AChE at IC50 294 μg/ml and 68 μg/ml respectively. Moreover, A. vasica interacted reversibly with the enzyme while P. harmala showed irreversible inhibition. Ferula assafoetida (IC50 3.2 μg/ml), Syzygium aromaticum (34.9 μg/ml) and Zingiber officinalis (33.6 μg/ml) showed activity against COX-1 enzyme. Potent radical scavenging activity was demonstrated by three plant extracts Terminalia chebula (EC50 2.2 μg/ml), T. arjuna (3.1 μg/ml) and Emblica officinalis (6.3 μg/ml).

Conclusion: Interestingly, differential results have been obtained which indicate the variability of the mode of actions for the selected plants. Additionally, the reversible interaction of A. vasica against AChE and the potent activity of F. assafoetida against COX-1 make them effective, new and promising agents for treatment of AD in the future, either as total extracts or their single bioactive constituents.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
% inhibition of AChE by different plant extracts at 1000 μg/ml. Plant No. on x-axis refers to the corresponding numbered plants in Table 1.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Terry RD, Masliah E, Salmon DP, Butters N, DeTeresa R, Hill R, Hansen LA, Katzman R. Physical basis of cognitive alterations in Alzheimer’s disease: synapse loss is the major correlate of cognitive impairment. Ann Neurol. 1991;30(4):572–580. doi: 10.1002/ana.410300410. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Roberson MR, Harrell LE. Cholinergic activity and amyloid precursor protein metabolism. Brain Res Brain Res Rev. 1997;25(1):50–69. doi: 10.1016/S0165-0173(97)00016-7. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Greenblatt HM, Kryger G, Lewis T, Silman I, Sussman JL. Structure of acetylcholinesterase complexed with (−)-galanthamine at 2.3 A resolution. FEBS Lett. 1999;463(3):321–326. doi: 10.1016/S0014-5793(99)01637-3. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Dolmella A, Bandoli G, Nicolini M. Alzheimer’s disease: a pharmacological challenge. Adv Drug Res. 1994;25:203–294.
    1. Greenlee W, Clader J, Asberom T, McCombie S, Ford J, Guzik H, Kozlowski J, Li S, Liu C, Lowe D. et al. Muscarinic agonists and antagonists in the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease. Farmaco. 2001;56(4):247–250. doi: 10.1016/S0014-827X(01)01102-8. - DOI - PubMed

Publication types

MeSH terms