NEUROPROTECTIVE EFFECT OF CITRULLUS LANATUS ETHANOLIC SEED EXTRACT ON CEREBRAL ISCHEMIC REPERFUSION INJURY INDUCED COGNITIVE IMPAIRMENT AND OXIDATIVE STRESS

Oxidative stress appears to be an early event involved in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease (AD). The present study was designed to investigate the neuroprotective effects of ethanolic seed extract of Citrullus Lanatuson bilateral common carotid artery occlusion (BCCAO) induced cognitive impairment and oxidative stress in Wistar albino rats.Cognitive impairment and oxidative stress were induced by BCCAO for 30 minutes, followed by 7 days reperfusion of male wistar rats. Morris water maze and rectangular maze performance tests and locomotor activity were used to assess memory performance tasks. To study the activity, rats weighing 250-300g were pretreated withethanolicseed extract of Citrullus Lanatus (ESECL)400 mg/kg, 200 mg/kg, p.o of each for 10 days and the treatment was continued for another 7 days after cerebral ischemia. Various biochemical parameters like lipid peroxidation, Catalase, DPPH and AchE were also estimated in the brain after the treatment.There was significantly increased oxidative stress and cholinesterase activity with cognitive decline in the hippocampus in rats of BCCAO group as compared to sham operated (p<0.05). The animals treated with Donepezil, ESECL prevented the biochemical changes significantly (p<0.001) and there was significant (p<0.01) improvement in cognitive parameters compared to BCCAO treated rats.Thus, present study indicates neuroprotective effect of ESECLagainst BCCAO induced cognitive impairment and associative oxidative damage.