HISTOPATHOLOGICAL EVIDENCE OF NEUROPROTECTION BY CRASSULA OVATA IN PTZ-INDUCED SEIZURE MODEL IN ALBINO RATS

When seizures hit the brain over and over, you can actually see the fallout under a microscope—neurons die off, vacuoles pop up, gliosis takes over, and the neat layers of the cortex start falling apart. That’s a big deal for anyone studying epilepsy or neurodegenerative diseases. In this study, we wanted to find out if Crassula ovata, a plant with a long track record in traditional medicine, actually shields the brain from that kind of damage. We used an ethanol extract of C. ovata in a rat model, where seizures were triggered with PTZ. To check what was going on, we stained brain slices with haematoxylin and eosin, then took a close look under the microscope—switching between 4x, 10x, and 40x zoom. Rats that got PTZ alone showed obvious neurodegeneration, vacuolization, gliosis, and the breakdown of cortical layers. But when we gave them C. ovata (at 200 or 400 mg/kg), the damage dropped off sharply. The plant extract clearly helped protect brain tissue from seizure-induced injury. So, based on these histopathology results, C. ovata looks pretty promising as a neuroprotective, anti-epileptic agent.