Skip Navigation


eCAM Advance Access originally published online on August 13, 2007
eCAM 2009 6(2):203-210; doi:10.1093/ecam/nem079
This Article
Right arrow Full Text Freely available
Right arrow Full Text (PDF) Freely available
Right arrowOA All Versions of this Article:
6/2/203    most recent
nem079v1
Right arrow E-letters: Submit a response
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me when E-letters are posted
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Mohandas Rao, K. G.
Right arrow Articles by Gurumadhva Rao, S.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Mohandas Rao, K. G.
Right arrow Articles by Gurumadhva Rao, S.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?


© 2007 The Author(s).
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/uk/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Enhancement of Amygdaloid Neuronal Dendritic Arborization by Fresh Leaf Juice of Centella asiatica (Linn) During Growth Spurt Period in Rats

K. G. Mohandas Rao1, S. Muddanna Rao2 and S. Gurumadhva Rao3

1Department of Anatomy, Melaka Manipal Medical College 2Department of Anatomy, Kasturba Medical College, and 3Department of Pharmacology, Melaka Manipal Medical College, Manipal 576 104, India

Centella asiatica (CeA) is a creeping herb, growing in moist places in India and other Asian Countries. Ayurvedic system of medicine, an alternate system of medicine in India, uses leaves of CeA for memory enhancement. Here, we have investigated the role of CeA fresh leaf juice treatment during growth spurt period of rats on dendritic morphology of amygdaloid neurons, one of the regions concerned with learning and memory. The present study was conducted on neonatal rat pups. The rat pups (7-days-old) were fed with 2, 4 and 6 ml/kg body of fresh leaf juice of CeA for 2, 4 and 6 weeks. After the treatment period, the rats were killed, brains removed and amygdaloid neurons impregnated with Silver nitrate (Golgi staining). Amygdaloid neurons were traced using camera lucida and dendritic branching points (a measure of dendritic arborization) and intersections (a measure dendritic length) quantified. These data were compared with those of age-matched control rats. The results showed a significant increase in dendritic length (intersections) and dendritic branching points along the length of dendrites of the amygdaloid neurons of rats treated with 4 and 6 ml/kg body weight/day of CeA for longer periods of time (i.e. 4 and 6 weeks). We conclude that constituents/active principles present in CeA fresh leaf juice has neuronal dendritic growth stimulating property; hence it can be used for enhancing neuronal dendrites in stress and other neurodegenerative and memory disorders.

Keywords: amygdaloid neurons – dendritic branches – dendritic intersections – neonatal rat pups – camera lucida

For reprints and all correspondence: Dr Mohandas Rao K. G., Assistant Professor of Anatomy, Melaka Manipal Medical College, Manipal 576 104, India. Tel: 91 820 2922568 +919844007023; Fax: 91-820-2571905; E-mail: mohandaskg{at}gmail.com or mohandas.rao{at}manipal.edu

Received March 7, 2007; accepted June 12, 2007


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?




Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.