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The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of paeoniflorin (PF) and paeonol (PN), the main active compounds of the Paeonia albiflora Pallas, on myocardial ischemia and reperfusion (I/R)-induced injury in Sprague-Dawley rats IN VIVO. Under anesthesia, the rats were subjected to 25 min of ischemia by ligation of the left anterior descending coronary artery (LAD) followed by 6 h (Western blot analysis) or 24 h (hemodynamics and infarct size) of reperfusion. When the infarct size was measured as the percentage of the area at risk, both PF (25.0 % +/- 7.0 %) and PN (24.1 % +/- 5.5 %) significantly (P < 0.05) reduced it compared to I/R control (54.8 % +/- 2.6 %). Administration of 10 mg/kg PF or PN 1 h prior to I/R injury also resulted in a significant improvement of the hemodynamic parameters. Furthermore, both PF and PN decreased the caspase-3 and Bax expressions but up-regulated Bcl-2 in the left ventricles. The results show that both PF and PN reduced myocardial damage in rat through protection from apoptosis, suggesting that Paeonia albiflora Pallas might be useful in treating myocardial infarction.

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In the present study, we investigated the effect of ethanolic extract of the seed of Zizyphus jujuba var. spinosa (EEZS) on cholinergic blockade-induced memory impairment in mice. Male ICR mice were treated with EEZS. The behavioral tests were conducted using the passive avoidance, the Y-maze, and the Morris water maze tasks. EEZS (100 or 200 mg/kg, p.o.) significantly ameliorated the scopolamine-induced cognitive impairment in our present behavioral tasks without changes of locomotor activity. The ameliorating effect of EEZS on scopolamine-induced memory impairment was significantly reversed by a sub-effective dose of MK-801 (0.0125 mg/kg, s.c.). In addition, single administration of EEZS in normal naïve mouse enhanced latency time in the passive avoidance task. Western blot analysis was employed to confirm the mechanism of memory-ameliorating effect of EEZS. Administration of EEZS (200 mg/kg) increased the level of memory-related signaling molecules, including phosphorylation of extracellular signal-regulated kinase or cAMP response element-binding protein in the hippocampal region. Also, the time-dependent expression level of brain-derived neurotrophic factor by the administration of EEZS was markedly increased from 3 to 9 h. These results suggest that EEZS has memory-ameliorating effect on scopolamine-induced cognitive impairment, which is mediated by the enhancement of the cholinergic neurotransmitter system, in part, via NMDA receptor signaling, and that EEZS would be useful agent against cognitive dysfunction such as Alzheimer’s disease.