Study on the psychotherapeutic potential of marjoram oil on clonidine-induced depressed rats

Depression is a strong mood involving sadness, discouragement, despair, or hopelessness that lasts for weeks, months, or even longer. It interferes with a person's ability to participate in normal activities. Depression affects a person's thoughts and behavior as well as mood. The use of herbal medicine in psychiatry practice has increased tremendously in the past decade due to its fewer side effects and it can enhance the effects of conventional agents or be an alternative treatment. Marjoram is considered one of the most common herbs of Lamiaceae family. The therapeutic properties of marjoram oil are analgesic, antioxidant, calms nerves, anti-spasmodic, expectorant, hypotensive and sedative. This work aims to investigate the effect of marjoram oil on the brain neurotransmitters of clonidine-induced depressed rats as well as their behavioral responses using open field and forced swimming tests. The results show that marjoram oil treatment normalized the brain neurotransmitters content, the latency period and ambulation frequency in clonidine depressed rats. A decrease in the immobility time and an increase in the struggling time were observed in the forced swimming test. Treatment with fluoxetine or marjoram oil of the depressed rats decrease malondialdehyde content and increase the reduced glutathione content. It can be conclude that marjoram oil could play an important role in treatment of depression and alter behavior

Effect of malt extract on the neuron-behavioral changes in clonidine-induced depressed rats

Depression is a serious disorder that represents a major public disease often associated with symptoms at the psychological and physiological levels. Herbs and herbs-derived products have attracted much attention in relation to prevention of many diseases including psychiatric illnesses. Their therapeutic potential has been assessed in a variety of animal models, and the mechanisms of action have been investigated through neurochemical approaches. The aim of the present study is to investigate the possible antidepressant effects of malt extract using the open field and forced swimming tests and evaluation of brain neurotransmitters and oxidative stress biomarkers in the clonidine-induced depressed rats. Clonidine hydrochloride [0.8mg/kg] was injected intraperitoneally into rats daily for seven days in order to induce depression. Brain contents of serotonin, norepinephrine and dopamine as well as malondialdehyde and reduced glutathione were estimated. Effect of the antidepressant drug fluoxetine was also studied. Malt extract normalized the clonidine-induced altered behavior in the open field and forced swimming tests. Malt extract as well as fluoxetine normalized the reduced brain serotonin and dopamine contents winle fluoxetine increased the brain content of norepinephrine in the clonidine-induced depressed rats. In addition, both malt extract and fluoxetine normalized the altered oxidative biomarkers. The behavioral and biochemical results revealed that malt extract may have antidepressant activity which may he mediated through changes in the brain neurotransmitters and oxidative stress biomarkers

Influence of exposure to vapour of certain pyrethroids household mosquito repellant preparations on the neurobehavioral action of fluoxetin in rats

The environment includes increasing number of synthetic chemical compounds that cause environmental contamination . One of the most popular contaminating compounds are pyrethroids insecticides .Therefore, their wide spread use in agriculture and puplic health stimulated our attention for studying their possible toxic effect[s] on drug action .Fluoxetine is a selective inhibitor of serotonin reuptake which is widely used as an antidepressant . The aim of this work was to study the effect of inhalational exposure to vapour of two commonly used mosquito repellant preparations containing pyrethroids on the neurobehavioural action of fluoxetine . Sprague Dawley adult male rats were allocated into 3 main groups namely, control, and Ezalo and Ragon exposed groups .Exposure was performed 20 mm/day for 7 days in a static chamber . Twenty four hours later, i.p injection of fluoxetine [10 mg/kg] was performed . Contents of serotonin, norepinephrine and dopamine were determined in differtent brain regions one hour after fluoxetine injection . Behavioural parameters were also determined using open field and swimming test techniques.The obtained results showed that pre-exposure to Ezalo vapour induced significant increase in ambulation and rearing frequencies, while pre-exposure to Ragon vapour induced significant increase in ambulation, grooming and rearing frequencies as compared to fluoxetine-treated animals . Contents of serotonin and dopamine were also significantly altered in most brain regions .The obtained changes in the neurobehavioural parameters may be due to the effect[s] of pyrethroids and or the accompanying substances present in the mosquito repellant preparations on the biotransformation of fluoxetine