EVALUTION OF NOOTROPIC AND ANTICONVULSANT STUIES OF ETHANOLIC EXTRACT OF CROTALARIA HEBECARPA PLANT LEAVES

Human learning may occur as part of education or personal development (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learning). In psychology, memory is an organism's mental ability to store, retain and recall past information. Traditional studies of memory began in the fields of philosophy, including techniques of artificially enhancing the memory. The late 19th and early 20th century put memory within the paradigms of cognitive psychology. The common cause of dementia is Alzheimer’s disease, which is progressive neuro-degenerative disorder associated with loss of neurons in distinct areas of brain. The central cholinergic pathway plays a prominent role in learning and memory process. Since allopathic system of medicine is yet to provide a radical cure for dementia and it is worthwhile to look for new direction i.e. in ayurvedic system of medicine which was reported with many drugs to minimize the memory loss seen in elderly patients (Dhingra D et al., 2004). dementia in the elderly, about 5 million people in the United States are estimated to be afflicted by this disorder and the percentage approximately doubles with every 5 years of age with about 1% of 60 years old and about 30 % of 85 years olds having the disease (Guyton AC et al., 2006). Medicinal plants have served as sources of readily accessible, inexpensive, and effective medication since the earliest times known to man. Several ethnomedicinal plants have been found to possess neurobehavioral profile and serve as alternative to modern medicine. The extract of showed significant dose dependent decrease (p < 0.01) in the symptoms of status epilepticus in rats. These were found to be similar to standard drug diazepam at dose of 10 mg/kg. That the relief from LT induced status epilepticus was observed from 45 min of administration in the Extract 200mg/kg group of extract. Then from 45 min to 150 min of observation shows a dose dependent decrease in convulsions. It is evident from the observations that the extract of Crotalaria Hebecarpa is potentially effective against the LT induced status epilepticus. The finding of this study which are evident from the observations, have shown that the ethanolic extract of Crotalaria Hebecarpa has potent anticonvulsant activity. This also justifies the use of vernacular and traditional medicines for the treatment of CNS related disorders such as epilepsy.