Background: Cannabis is a widely used
illicit drug with various threats of
personality syndrome , and
Nigella sativa has been widely implicated as having
therapeutic efficacy in many neurological
diseases . The present study investigates the ameliorative
efficacy of
Nigella sativa oil (NSO) on
cannabis -induced moto-cognitive defects.
Methods: Scopolamine (1 mg/kg i.p.) was given to induce
dementia as a standard base line for
cannabis (20 mg/kg)-induced
cognitive impairment , followed by an
oral administration of NSO (1 ml/kg) for 14 consecutive days. The
Morris water maze (MWM) paradigm was used to assess the
memory index, the
elevated plus maze was used for
anxiety -like behaviour, and the
open field test was used for
locomotor activities ; thereafter, the
rats were sacrificed and their brains were removed for histopathologic studies.
Results: Cannabis -like
Scopolamine caused
memory impairment, delayed latency in the MWM, and
anxiety -like behaviour, coupled with alterations in the cerebello-hippocampal
neurons . The post-
treatment of
rats with NSO mitigated
cannabis -induced
cognitive dysfunction as with
scopolamine and impaired
anxiety -like behaviour by increasing open
arm entry, line crossing, and histological changes.
Conclusions: The observed ameliorative effects of NSO make it a promising agent against moto-
cognitive dysfunction and cerebelo-hippocampal alterations induced by
cannabis .