Maurmann Natasha, Reolon Gustavo Kellermann, Rech Sandra Beatriz, Fett-Neto Arthur Germano, Roesler Rafael
Graduate Program in Cellular and Molecular Biology, Center for Biotechnology, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, 91501 970 Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil; Laboratory of Molecular Neuropharmacology, Department of Pharmacology, Institute for Basic Health Sciences, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil.
Faculty of Pharmacy, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil.
Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2011;2011:720853. doi: 10.1093/ecam/nep232. Epub 2011 Jan 12.
Plants of the genus Valeriana (Valerianaceae) are used in traditional medicine as a mild sedative, antispasmodic and tranquilizer in many countries. This study was undertaken to explore the neurobehavioral effects of systemic administration of a valepotriate extract fraction of known quantitative composition of Valeriana glechomifolia (endemic of southern Brazil) in mice. Adult animals were treated with a single intraperitoneal injection of valepotriate fraction (VF) in the concentrations of 1, 3 or 10 mg kg(-1), or with vehicle in the pre-training period before each behavioral test. During the exploration of an open field, mice treated with 10 mg kg(-1) of VF showed reduced locomotion and exploratory behavior. Although overall habituation sessions for locomotion and exploratory behavior among vehicle control and doses of VF were not affected, comparison between open-field and habituation sessions within each treatment showed that VF administration at 1 and 10 mg kg(-1) impaired habituation. In the elevated plus-maze test, mice treated with VF (10 mg kg(-1)) showed a significant increase in the percentage of time spent in the open arms without significant effects in the number of total arm entries. VF at 3 mg kg(-1) produced an impairment of novel-object recognition memory. In contrast, VF did not affect fear-related memory assessed in an inhibitory avoidance task. The results indicate that VF can have sedative effects and affect behavioral parameters related to recognition memory.
缬草属（缬草科）植物在许多国家的传统医学中被用作温和的镇静剂、解痉剂和镇定剂。本研究旨在探讨系统给予已知定量组成的巴西南部特有植物 Glechomifolia 缬草的缬草三酯提取物部分对小鼠的神经行为影响。成年动物在每次行为测试前的预训练期，腹腔注射一次浓度为 1、3 或 10 mg kg⁻¹ 的缬草三酯部分（VF），或注射赋形剂。在旷场试验中，接受 10 mg kg⁻¹ VF 治疗的小鼠运动和探索行为减少。虽然赋形剂对照组和不同剂量 VF 组之间运动和探索行为的总体习惯化过程未受影响，但各治疗组内旷场试验和习惯化试验之间的比较表明，1 和 10 mg kg⁻¹ 的 VF 给药会损害习惯化。在高架十字迷宫试验中，接受 VF（10 mg kg⁻¹）治疗的小鼠在开放臂中停留时间的百分比显著增加，而总臂进入次数无显著影响。3 mg kg⁻¹ 的 VF 对新物体识别记忆产生损害。相比之下，VF 对抑制性回避任务中评估的恐惧相关记忆没有影响。结果表明，VF 具有镇静作用，并会影响与识别记忆相关的行为参数。
