Protective effect of alpinia galanga aganist d-galactose induced brain aging

D-galactose induced neurotoxicity is well known model for studying aging and related oxidative damage and memory impairment. Aging is a biological process, characterized by the gradual loss of physiological functions by unknown mechanism. This study attempted to access the neuroprotective effect of Alpinia galanga on the senescent rat induced by D-galactose (D-gal). The rats in the experiments were orally administered with Alpinia galanga (500 mg/kg), for four weeks. Alpinia galanga fed rat showed higher activity by increase in fall off time in rotarod test, showing higher attention in visual placement test, increase in sniffing time for the new object in novel object recognition test, and significantly improved learning and memory ability in Morris water Maze tests compared with D-galactose treated rat. Alpinia galanga significantly increased superoxide dismutase (SOD), Catalase (CAT), Glutathione (GSH), Total Protein Content (TPC) activity and decreased the malondialdehyde (MDA) level. Alpinia galanga also attenuated enhanced acetylcholine esterase enzyme level in D-galactose senescence rat. Present study highlights the protective effect of Alpinia galanga against D-galactose induced behavioral and biochemical parameters in rat. These results indicated that Alpinia galanga has the potential to be a useful treatment for cognitive impairment. In addition, the memory enhancing effect of Alpinia galanga may be partly mediated via enhancing endogenous antioxidant enzymatic activities.