antioxidant, acetyl- and butyrylcholinesterase inhibitory activities of a memory enhancer formulation from traditional persian medicine (tpm)

Alzheimer's (ad) is the most common type of dementia in humans. the cholinergic hypothesis is one of the most important theories behind the pathogenesis of ad. it claims that excessive activity of the enzyme acetylcholinesterase causes the degradation of acetylcholine, which reduces its concentration in the brain and leads to dementia symptoms. ad (nesyan in ancient persian = forgetfulness) has been thoroughly investigated in persian medicine. various remedies have been recommended for the prevention, treatment, and symptom management of ad. one prescribed polyherbal formulation, safoof-e-nesyan (sen), includes cinnamomum verum bark, zingiber officinale rhizome, boswellia carterii gum, acorus calamus rhizome, syzygium aromaticum flower, cinnamomum cassia bark, and cyperus rotundus rhizome. this study investigates the effect of this formulation on the acetylcholinesterase and butyrylcholinesterase activities and its antioxidant effects. methanol and dichloromethane extracts of each component and the whole formulation were prepared. dpph free radical assay revealed the lowest ic50 value (13.0±1.03 µg/ml) for a. calamus dichloromethane extract. the results of the enzyme inhibition assays showed that sen could be considered an enzyme inhibitor. also, methanol extracts showed a more substantial effectiveness than dichloromethane extracts. results indicated the highest inhibition of s. aromaticum, b. carterii, and c. verum against acetylcholinesterase. contrary to this, the highest inhibition of butyrylcholinesterase enzyme activity was attributed to c. rotundus, s. aromaticum, and a. calamus extracts, which are responsible for the manifestation of anti-ad activity of the present formulation.