Effects of Sargassum wightii Methanolic Extract on L-Methionine Induced Experimental Vascular Dementia like Syndrome in Albino Wistar Rats

Sargassum wightii is brown seaweeds with high nutritive value with natural bioactive compounds having diverse therapeutic activity. In recent years, research on Sargassum wightii has gain much interest in neuropharmacological field. Basing on neuroprotective effect of Sargassum wightii against Parkinson’s disease animal models, the possible protective effect on dementia is hypothesised. Addressing this question the present study was designed to investigate the effect of S. wightii on L-methionine induced vascular dementia like syndrome in male wistar albino rats. Vascular dementia was induced by oral administration of L-methionine (1.7 g/kg) per body weight for 4weeks S. wightii was given from day1 to day32. The neurobehavioral assessment was performed by Morris water maze test for learning and memory ability and blood sample was collected for serum nitrite and homocysteine analysis. The whole brain content was subjected to a series of biochemical analysis that included brain cholinesterase, malondialdehyde, reduced glutathione and histopathological examination. L-methionine impaired learning and memory, increased serum homocysteine and decreased serum nitrite level significantly (p<0.001). It also increased brain thiobarbituric acid reactive substances, reduced glutathione and increased acetylcholinesterase activity significantly (p<0.001). Sargassum wightii at 200mg/kg and 400mg/kg body weight reversed the L-methionine induced learning and memory deficits (p<0.01) and (p<0.001) respectively. The L-methionine induced biochemical alterations in serum and brain as well as histopathological aberration in cortex and hippocampus were restored by Sargassum wightii (p<0.01). This study concluded that Sargassum wightii ameliorated L-methionine induced vascular dementia like syndrome and provided a new concept in anti-dementia therapy as a neuroprotectants.