Effects of Boswellia serrata, Zingiber officinale and Ginkgo biloba extracts in combination on memory impairment in mice

Abstract

Cognitive decline induced by oxidative brain damage is the critical pathological hallmark of Alzheimer's disease. Studies have shown that individual administration of Boswellia serrata Roxb (BS), Zingiber officinale Roscoe (ZO) and Ginkgo biloba L. (GB) extracts improved memory and learning through a different mechanism of actions. This study aims to compare the individual effects of each extract with their co-administration on memory impairment induced by scopolamine in mice. Memory dysfunction was induced by a single dose of scopolamine (1 mg/kg, i.p) and extracts were administered intraperitoneally in different doses for one week. Memory performance of the mice was evaluated using the object recognition task (ORT) and passive avoidance test (PAT). The outcomes from ORT demonstrated that, ZO and GB extracts at 200 mg/kg and BS extract just in combination group significantly enhanced (by 95%) the memory loss induced by scopolamine (P < 0.05). On the other hand, PAT results revealed that BS extract at 60 and 90 mg/kg, ZO and GB extracts at 200 mg/kg and their combinations noticeably improved the latency time (by 80%). Although in PAT, co-administration of extracts was more effective than either alone doses in augmenting of the memory function, ORT results showed no considerable differences.