Neuroprotective effect of Brahmi, an ayurvedic drug against oxidative stress induced by methyl mercury toxicity in rat brain mitochondrial-enriched fractions

Dhanoop Manikoth Ayyathan, Rajasekaran Chandrasekaran, Kalaivani Thiagarajan

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

18 Scopus citations

Abstract

The present study evaluates the neuroprotective effect of Brahmi against methyl mercury (MeHg) toxicity. The results demonstrated that MeHg-decreased mitochondrial viability in MTT assay and IC50 value was found to be 2.5 μg/mL. However, Brahmi at 250 μg/mL concentration effectively prevented mitochondrial damage caused by MeHg in MTT assay. Our results also demonstrated MeHg significantly inhibited catalase enzyme activity, glutathione content and increased the level of thiobarbituric acid reactive substances in mitochondrial-enriched fractions of rat brain. These alterations were prevented by preincubation with Brahmi. In addition, Brahmi reverted glutathione level to normal that was depleted by MeHg, confirming its chelating effect, one of the molecular mechanisms that underlie protection against oxidative damage. Our study also focused on total phenolic and flavonoid contents of Brahmi, and it was found to contain significant amount of phenols and flavonoids. The presence of saponins was detected by HPLC which might be responsible for neuroprotection against MeHg.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1046-1051
Number of pages6
JournalNatural Product Research
Volume29
Issue number11
DOIs
StatePublished - 3 Jun 2015
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2014 Taylor & Francis.

Keywords

  • Brahmi
  • methyl mercury
  • mitochondrial viability
  • neuroprotection
  • oxidative stress

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