Arjunolic acid,a pentacyclic triterpenoidal saponin of Terminalia arjuna bark protects neurons from oxidative stress associated damage in focal cerebral ischemia and reperfusion

Background arjunolic acid (aa),a pentacyclic triterpenoidal saponin of terminalia arjuna is well recognized for its antioxidant properties. we proposed to evaluate its antioxidant potential against focal cerebral ischemia reperfusion (i/r) injury in rats subjected to middle cerebral artery occlusion (mcao). methods in the present study,rats were randomly divided into a sham,mcao,aa (10 and 20 mg/kg) treated groups. rats received their respective treatment orally by gavage for 7 days prior to mcao. rats were anaesthetized with ketamine (100 mg/kg),xylazine (10 mg/kg) and subjected to 2 h occlusion and 22 h reperfusion. neurological deficit,brain water content and oxidative stress markers were measured after 22 h of reperfusion. results rats pretreated with aa showed significantly reduced neurological deficit score,infarct size. aa prevented neuronal damage induced by i/r by regulating the levels of malondialdehyde (mda),reduced glutathione (gsh),nitric oxide (no),protein carbonyl content and mitochondria generated reactive oxygen species. in addition,it also controlled the enzyme activities of na+-k+ atpase,superoxide dismutase (sod),catalase (cat),glutathione peroxidase (gpx) and glutathione reductase (gr). conclusions pre-treatment with aa effectively prevented the cerebral i/r induced oxidative damage by virtue of its antioxidant potential. these results indicate that supplementation of aa may be beneficial in stroke prone population. © 2015 institute of pharmacology,polish academy of sciences.