the effect of ethanol extract of beta vulgaris leaves on rats with scopolamine-induced cognitive deficiency

Background: the current study evaluated the effect of ethanol extract of beta vulgaris leaves on scopolamine-induced memory impairments. methods: animals were randomly divided into five groups including 10 rats. the control group received distillated water, the scopolamine group received scopolamine (1 mg/kg, intraperitoneally (ip) daily for 15 days. the extract-treated groups received b. vulgaris leaves extract at 50, 100, and 200 mg/kg ip 30 minutes after administration of scopolamine. after a 15-day treatment, passive avoidance memory, brain antioxidant capacity, and malondialdehyde (mda) level were evaluated in each rat. results: scopolamine-treated rats showed shorter step-through latency (stl) than the control rats, but not significantly (p > 0.05). groups treated with 100 and 200 mg/kg of b. vulgaris leaf extract had significantly longer stl than scopolamine-treated rats (p < 0.05). administration of b. vulgaris leaf extract (200 mg/kg) into scopolamine-treated rats significantly improved brain antioxidant capacity. conclusions: the results of the current study indicated that the ethanol b. vulgaris extract at 200 mg/kg showed positive activity against the adverse effects of scopolamine.