Anticonvulsant properties of an aqueous extract of Dysphania ambrosioides (L.) Mosyakin and Clemants (Chenopodiaceae) in mice pilocarpine model of temporal lobe epilepsy

Ethnopharmacological relevance: Dysphania ambrosioides (L.) Mosyakin and Clemants (Chenopodiaceae) is used in traditional Cameroonian medicine to treat epilepsy and anxiety.

Aims of the study: This study aimed to investigate the anticonvulsant effects of Dysphania ambrosioides aqueous extract in mice pilocarpine model of temporal lobe epilepsy.

Materials and Methods: The mice were treatments with distilled water for the normal and negative control, sodium valproate (300 mg/kg) for the positive control, and different doses of an aqueous extract of Dysphania ambrosioides (37, 92.5, 185, 370 mg/kg, p.o) for the test groups. Methyl-scopolamine (1 mg/kg) were injected forty minute later. One hour after the first treatment (first day), epilepsy was induced by intraperitoneal injection of 360 mg/kg pilocarpine. On the seventh day, antioxidant activities and the involvement of GABAergic transmission were determined by measuring the levels of malondialdehyde (MDA), reduced glutathione (GSH), superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), γ-Aminobutyric acid (GABA) and GABA-transaminase (GABA-T), respectively in the hippocampus of sacrificed epileptic mice.

Results: Dysphania ambrosioides (370 mg/kg) strongly protected mice against epileptogenesis by increasing the latency time to status epilepticus (p˂0.001) and decreasing the number of tonic clonic convulsions (p˂0.001). The extract significantly increased the levels of GSH (p˂0.001), CAT (p˂0.001), SOD (p˂0.001) and GABA (p˂0.001), and decreased the levels of MDA (p˂0.001), NO (p˂0.001) and GABA-T (p˂0.001).

Conclusion: The results suggest that the anticonvulsant activities of Dysphania ambrosioides extract are accompanied by its antioxidant effects, and may be mediated at least in part by the GABA neurotransmission.