Background: Numerous plants in traditional practices of medicine have been used to treat cognitive disorders, including neurodegenerative
diseases such as Alzheimer's disease (AD) and other memory related disorders.
Materials and Methods: We present here the evaluation of acetylcholinesterase (AChE) inhibitory and antioxidant activities of the aqueous
methanol extracts of five traditional medicinal plants.
Citrullus colocynthis
,
Emex spinosa
,
Rhazya stricta
,
Scrophularia hypericifolia
and
Caylusea hexagyna
extracts were tested for their acetylcholinesterase inhibitory effect ant their antioxidant effect at different concentrations.
Results: Citrullus colocynthis and
Emex spinosa inhibited acetylthiocholinesterase at 400 μg/ ml by 83.54 and 81.92%.
Emex spinosa and
Scrophularia hypericifolia produced the maximum effect as DPPH radical scavenger (IC
50= 10.89 and 11.88μg/ ml, respectively).
Scrophularia hypericifolia showed the highest effect as superoxide radical scavenger (IC
50= 20.83 μg/ ml)also it produced the highest ability to
scavenge hydrogenperoxide radicals (IC
50= 8.66 μg/ ml) while
Emex spinosa and
Caylusea hexagyna showed least IC
50 for ferrous ion chelation
(IC
50≈15 μg/ ml) with powerful reduction capability.
Conclusion:The determined antioxidant properties magnified the total antioxidant effect determined by ABTS assay that completely inhibited
lipidperoxidation at 200 μg/ ml.
