Antidepressant Effect of Water Extract of Gastrodia elata Bl.
Date Issued
2008
Date
2008
Author(s)
Chen, Pei-Ju
Abstract
Depression is a common psychiatric disease with high morbidity and mortality. It affects not only the patients themselves, but also their family and the society. It imposes a heavy burden on the society and the economics. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that major depression is the second greatest single cause of disability worldwide. However, the treatment prevalence rate of depression is less than 50%. The reaons of the low treatment rate may be the undesirable efficacy and the side effects of the medication. Thus, looking for an alternative treatment, such as a traditional medicine, with high antidepressant effect and low side effects is important. Gastrodia elata Bl. is a famous Chinese medicine used for centries. The aims of this study are to examine the antidepressant effects of the water extract of Gastrodia elata Bl. (WGE) using the animal model forced-swimming test (FST) in both acute and subchronic treatments, and to analyze the neurotransmitter concentration in brain regions related to depression. The effects of WGE on learning and memory function of rats in the inhibitaor avoidance task (IA) and Morris water maze (WM) after the forced-swimming procedure was studied. Furthure more, the possible mechanism of WGE as an antidepressant was investigated in in vitro study. The results showed that WGE significantly reduced the immobility time of rats in FST in both acute and subchronic treatments, and the serotonin and dopamine turnover were reduced in rats’ brain after WGE administration. Fifteen mins of forced-swimming procedure (FS), which induced depressive-like affection in rats, administered before the training sessions significantly impair the learning and memory function of rats in the IA and WM. The WGE treatment for consecutive 21 days significantly attenuated dificits in the learning and memory caused by FS. Besides the momoamine modulation and lipid peroxidation inhibition found in the animal models, the inhibition effects of WGE on monoamine oxidase (MAO) activity were studied with PC12 cell line. The results revealed that MAO activity in the PC12 cells incubated with WGE for 48 hr was decreased, but WGE could not directly inhibit MAO activity while interacting with MAO. Ther major known active aomponents of Gastrodia elata Bl., 4-hydroxybenzaldehyde (HB), p-hydroxybenzyl alcohol (HBA) and vanillin (VAN), were also used for MAO activity assay. MAOA and MAOB activity were decreased in HBA (100 μM and 50 μM) and VAN (100 μM) groups and HB (100 μM) and HBA (100 μM) groups, respectively. MAO is the major enzyme that metabolites monoamine neurotransmitters, 5-HT and DA, it is suggested that HB, HBA and VAN might be parts of the antidepressant components in WGE. Further studies, such as the inhibition pathway of WGE on MAO activity, the other possible antidepressant mechanisms of WGE, the major antidepressant components in WGE and the optimal dosage of WGE, should be investigated. All of these studies and clinical study will be useful for further clinical use.
Subjects
Gastrodia elata Bl.
depression
forced-swimming test
memory
inhibitory avoidance task
Morris water maze
neurotransmitters
monoamine oxidase
Type
thesis
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