Molecular dynamics directed neuroprotective activity of alcoholic extract of Garuga pinnata Roxb. in experimental rats

Background: Garuga pinnata Roxb., a member of family Burseraceae, is a commonly grown plant in south east Asia including India in tropical rain forests predominately. Apart from folkloric use, important anti-inflammatory and antiasthamatic activity of this plant has been revealed.

Objective: This study is aimed to know neuroprotective effects of ethanolic extracts which is based on the computationally determined NMDA as molecular target.

Material and methods: Well dried ethanolic extract of leaves was examined for the presence of amentoflavone with LC-MS/MS which offered the fragments those mimicked the fragmentation of amentoflavone. Effect of ethanolic extract was studies by dividing experimental rat groups each consisting of six animals into sham group, control group, GPE 200 mg/kg and GPE 400 mg/kg groups and were operated for hassle free administration of colchicine. The pharmacological study involved Morris water maze test, Elevated plus maze test and Open Field Box Test.

Results: In Morris water maze test, both the selected doses of extracts showed significant decrease in the mean escape latencies upon colchicine challenge. Similarly, in both the doses of the extract showed improved motor and grooming effects in elevated plus maze test upon colchicine injection and also significant ambulatory movements were recorded in open field box test too.

Conclusion: The ethanolic extracts of Garuga pinnata on the experimental animals showed significant restoration of the memory capacity of the tested animals, thus the computationally explored insights and pharmco-behavioral screening were quite closure to each other.