Effect of Plumbago zeylanica administration on brain neurotransmitter level in Wistar albino rats

Abstract

According to WHO about 80% of the world's population relies on traditional medicine for their primary health care. Plumbago zeylanica L. is a medicinal plant, belong to the family of Plumbaginaceae and the root of P. zeylanica contains several bioactive constituent like L-dopa, Plumbagin (naphthoquinone), droseron, chitranone, triterpenoid, anthraquinone. This study is designed to evaluate the effect of P. zeylanica and naphthoquinone on the level of various amine neurotransmitters namely epinephrine, norepinephrine, serotonin, 5-hydroxyindole 3- acetic acid (5-HIAA), and dopamine on the discrete regions of the brain tissues. Wistar male albino rats were treated separately with ethanoloic extract of P. zeylannica (root) and the commercially purchased phytochemical naphthoquinone at the dose of 2mg/kg b. wt with different experimental groups. The brain tissue homogenates (cerebral cortex, cerebellum, hypothalamus, pons-medulla, midbrain, and corpus striatum) were analyzed to quantify the aforementioned neurotransmitters by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The results showed that, administration of P. zeylanica and NQ does not alter the many of the studied neurotransmitter at significant level; however, there is a change in the neurotransmitter profile in few specific regions of Wistar rat brain and striatum was found to be affected more.