NATIVE MEDICINAL PLANTS EFFECT ON CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEM PATHOLOGIES

CAROLINA MARCUCCI; HERNÁN GERÓNIMO BACH; MARIEL MARDER; VALENTINA PASTORE ; BEATRIZ GRACIELA VARELA; MARCELO LUIS WAGNER; NATALIA COLETTIS; RAFAEL ALEJANDRO RICCO

Mar del Plata

Congreso; Reunión Conjunta 2016 - SAIC, SAI, SAFE; 2016

SAIC, SAI, SAFE

Neurodegenerative, neurological and psychiatric diseases are pathologies with huge social and economic impacts. Their treatments are based on drugs that alleviate symptoms and their efficacy is diminished by side effects, so, there is a clinical need to find alternative treatments, which is the aim of our research. Our country harbors several thousands of plant species, which lack scientific information although many of them are used in folk medicine. We have wide experience studying the effect on CNS of natural and synthetic compounds. Our hypothesis is that native plants have unexplored compounds with multiple biological activities on CNS. Herein we present a preliminary screening of the CNS effect, related to their traditional use; and chemical composition, of hydroalcoholic extracts of 5 Argentinian plants: aerial parts of Salvia guaranítica (Labiatae) and Ligaria cuneifolia (Loranthaceae); and underground parts of Valeriana carnosa, macrorhiza and clarionifolia (Valerianaceae). These extracts were evaluated in vitro for the presence of acetyl and butyrilcholinesterase inhibitors (AChE/BChE, mice brain homogenate/plasma); and in vivo for their capacity to inhibit pentylenetetrazol (PTZ) seizures, on locomotion and exploratory behavior (holeboard assay) in Swiss male mice (CICUAL EXP-FyB N° 0058084/2015). Valeriana extracts showed AChE inhibition. V. clarionifolia was the most active one with an IC50 2.6 ± 0.8 mg/ml. Meanwhile, Ligaria cuneifolia (100 mg/kg i.p. and 300 mg/kg p.o.) protected mice for tonic phase seizures induced by PTZ. Moreover, V. macrorhiza increased mice locomotor activity and all valerianas showed an anxiolytic profile in the hole board assay (300-600 mg/kg p.o.).Our study is an important contribution for the discovery of unkwown native herbal products with CNS effects to develop novel therapeutical agents and strategies.