El-Naggar Tarek, Carretero María Emilia, Arce Carmen, Gómez-Serranillos María Pilar
a Department of Pharmacology, Faculty of Pharmacy , Universidad Complutense , Madrid , Spain.
b Chemistry of Natural and Microbial Products Department , National Research Center , Cairo , Egypt.
Pharm Biol. 2017 Dec;55(1):1415-1422. doi: 10.1080/13880209.2017.1302485.
Nigella sativa L. (Ranunculaceae) (NS) has been used for medicinal and culinary purposes. Different parts of the plant are used to treat many disorders.
This study investigates the effects of NS methanol extract on brain neurotransmitter amino acid levels.
We measured the changes in aspartate, glutamate, glycine and γ-aminobutyric acid in five brain regions of male Wistar rats after methanol extract treatment. Animals were injected intraperitoneally with saline solution (controls) or NS methanol extract (equivalent of 2.5 g/kg body weight) and sacrificed 1 h later or after administering 1 daily dose for 8 days. The neurotransmitters were measured in the hypothalamus, cortex, striatum, hippocampus and thalamus by HPLC.
Results showed significant changes in amino acids compared to basal values. Glutamate increased significantly (16-36%) in the regions analyzed except the striatum. Aspartate in the hypothalamus (50 and 76%) and glycine in hippocampus (32 and 25%), thalamus (66 and 29%) and striatum (75 and 48%) also increased with the two treatment intervals. γ-Aminobutyric acid significantly increased in the hippocampus (38 and 32%) and thalamus (22 and 40%) but decreased in the cortex and hypothalamus although in striatum only after eight days of treatment (24%).
Our results suggest that injected methanol extract modifies amino acid levels in the rat brain regions. These results could be of interest since some neurodegenerative diseases are related to amino acid level imbalances in the central nervous system, suggesting the prospect for therapeutic use of NS against these disorders.
黑种草（毛茛科）已被用于医药和烹饪用途。该植物的不同部位用于治疗多种疾病。
本研究调查黑种草甲醇提取物对脑神经递质氨基酸水平的影响。
我们测量了雄性Wistar大鼠经甲醇提取物处理后五个脑区中天冬氨酸、谷氨酸、甘氨酸和γ-氨基丁酸的变化。动物腹腔注射生理盐水（对照组）或黑种草甲醇提取物（相当于2.5 g/kg体重），1小时后或每日给药1次共8天后处死。通过高效液相色谱法测量下丘脑、皮质、纹状体、海马体和丘脑的神经递质。
结果显示，与基础值相比，氨基酸有显著变化。除纹状体外，所分析区域的谷氨酸显著增加（16%-36%）。两个处理间隔后，下丘脑的天冬氨酸（50%和76%）、海马体（32%和25%）、丘脑（66%和29%）和纹状体（75%和48%）中的甘氨酸也增加。γ-氨基丁酸在海马体（38%和32%）和丘脑（22%和40%）中显著增加，但在皮质和下丘脑中减少，不过在纹状体中仅在治疗8天后减少（24%）。
我们的结果表明，注射的甲醇提取物改变了大鼠脑区的氨基酸水平。这些结果可能具有意义，因为一些神经退行性疾病与中枢神经系统中氨基酸水平失衡有关，这表明黑种草在治疗这些疾病方面具有应用前景。
