Mojgan Mohammadifar, Omid Reza Tamtaji, Mohammad Behnam, Mohsen Taghizadeh, Sayyed Alireza Talaei,
Volume 22, Issue 2 (Spring 2016)
Abstract
Aims: As effective herbal materials, flavonoids and the phenolic compounds are with anti-pain and anti-inflammatory effects. Based on the studies, there is a huge amount of polyphenols and flavonoids in the leaves of Morus alba L. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the anti-pain effects of alcoholic extract of the leaves of Morus alba L. on the rats.
Materials & Methods: In the experimental study, 32 male Wistar rats were divided into 4 groups including control group and groups receiving 100, 200, and 400mg/kg alcoholic extract of the leaves of Morus alba L. There was 4-week daily extract gavage. The anti-pain effect of the extract was investigated through thermal hyperalgesia, writhing, tail flick, and formalin tests. Data was analyzed by SPSS 16 software using one-way ANOVA and Tukey’s post-hoc tests.
Findings: Daily use of 100, 200, and 400mg/kg of alcoholic extract of the leaves of Morus alba L. for 4 weeks led to significant increases in the mean foot withdrawal latency (p<0.001) and mean tail withdrawal latency (p<0.001) and significant reductions in the percentage of abdominal constriction (p<0.001) and pain feeling in both acute (p<0.05) and chronic (p<0.01) phases of formalin test than control group. Nevertheless, the effect of 200mg/kg dose was higher than the other doses.
Conclusion: Oral consumption of the alcoholic extract of the leaves of Morus alba L. leads to a reduction in pain feeling in the rats. In addition, the anti-pain effect of 200mg/kg dose is higher than other doses.
Leila Khani, Mona Taghizade Salari, Kianoush Gholami, Hananeh Ahmadnia, Maede Hasanpour, Milad Iranshahy, Morteza Behnam-Rassouli,
Volume 29, Issue 2 (Spring 2023)
Abstract
Aims Alzheimer’s disease is one of the most common dementias, which is initially characterized by synaptic damage and subsequently accompanied by neuronal loss and cognitive impairments, such as anxiety and depression. Urolithins are natural phenolic compounds found abundantly in the human diet and are catabolized from the hydrolysis of ellagitannins by the gut microbiota. They possess anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties and have been found to be effective in brain disorders, particularly memory dysfunction. This study aimed to investigate the effect of Urolithin A and B administration on learning and memory impairments as well as anxiety-like behaviors in adult male rat models of Alzheimer’s disease.
Materials & Methods In this experimental study, 70 adult male Wistar rats were randomly divided into 10 groups of seven, including the healthy control group, the Sham group: received streptozotocin solvent (ascorbic acid 0.1% in saline) as intracerebroventricular (ICV) injection and urolithins solvent (DMSO) as intraperitoneal (IP) injection, Positive control group: received streptozotocin as ICV injection and memantine as IP injection, Negative control group: received streptozotocin as ICV injection, Treatment groups 1 to 6: received streptozotocin as ICV injection and urolithin A and urolithin B as IP injection for 14 days. After the treatment period, the learning and memory of the rats were measured by the passive avoidance test, and the elevated plus maze test measured anxiety-like behaviors.
Findings The results of statistical analysis using one-way variance test (ANOVA) and Tukey's post hoc test, performed in R software, showed that in the passive avoidance test, streptozotocin caused a significant impairment in learning and memory in the negative control group (P<0.01), while the treatment with urolithin A and B significantly improved memory performance, much better than the standard treatment (memantine) (P<0.05). Furthermore, the results of the elevated plus maze test also indicated a significant increase in anxiety-like behaviors in the negative control group compared to the control group (P<0.001), while the treatment with urolithin A and B significantly reduced these behaviors (P<0.01).
Conclusion The results of this study indicated that urolithin A and B, probably due to their antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, protected the brain against the effects of streptozotocin injection, and consequently, improved learning and memory performance and reduced anxiety-like behaviors.
