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Muara Puama(Ptychopetalum olacoides) is a phyto acetylcholinisterase,which prevents the enzyme from eating up acetylcholine.
We know that acetylcholine is essential for sexual functioning and memory which is depleted in neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimers.
This is how Muara Puama achieves it's effects primarily by increasing acetylcholine levels. But one must be careful not to use too much acetylcholine precursors like choline, lecithin, DMAE etc. at once or too high of an individual or combined dose, and a degree of concern should be noted regarding the further addition of acetycholinisterase inhibitors, in order to avoid exess cholinergic stimulation.
Keeping this mind it has the potential as a nootropic and a phytochemical to treat alzheimers without a huge array of adverse effects seen typically with meds like aricept.
Ptychopetalum olacoides, a traditional Amazonian "nerve tonic", possesses anticholinesterase activity.
Siqueira IR, Fochesatto C, da Silva AL, Nunes DS, Battastini AM, Netto CA, Elisabetsky E.
Departamento de Bioquimica, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, RS, 90035-003, Porto Alegre, Brazil.
The cholinergic hypothesis of Alzheimer disease (AD) has provided the rationale for the current pharmacotherapy of this disease, in an attempt to downgrade the cognitive decline caused by cholinergic deficits. Nevertheless, the search for potent and long-acting acetylcholinesterase (AChE) inhibitors that exert minimal side effects to AD patients is still an ongoing effort. Amazonian communities use traditional remedies prepared with Ptychopetalum olacoides (PO, Olacaceae) roots for treating various central nervous system conditions, including those associated with aging. The fact that PO ethanol extract (POEE) has been found to facilitate memory retrieval in the step down procedure in young and aged mice prompt us to evaluate its effects on AChE activity in memory relevant brain areas. POEE significantly inhibited AChE activity in vitro in a dose- and time-dependent manner in rat frontal cortex, hippocampus and striatum; a significant inhibition was also found in these same brain areas of aged (14 months) mice after acute administration of POEE (100 mg/kg ip). We propose that such AChE inhibitory activity is a neurochemical correlate of a number of therapeutic properties traditionally claimed for P. olacoides, particularly those associated with cognition.
Anxiogenic properties of Ptychopetalum olacoides Benth. (Marapuama).
da Silva AL, Bardini S, Nunes DS, Elisabetsky E.
Curso de Pos Graduacao em Ciencias Biologicas-Bioquimica, Universidade Federaldo Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil.
Alcohol infusions of roots of Ptychopetalum olacoides Benth. (PO), known as Marapuama or Muirapuama, are used in the Brazilian Amazon as a 'nerve tonic'. Over the years PO has been found increasingly in phytoformulations and regarded as a stimulant, claimed to enhance physical and mental performances. This study determined that a P. olacoides ethanol extract (30, 100 and 300 mg/kg) decreased exploratory behaviour in the hole-board test, without interfering with locomotion or motor coordination (rota-rod test). The data are comparable to that obtained with pentylenetetrazol (40 mg/kg), suggesting an anxiogenic effect of P. olacoides.
The relaxation of isolated rabbit corpus cavernosum by the herbal medicine Catuama and its constituents.
Antunes E, Gordo WM, de Oliveira JF, Teixeira CE, Hyslop S, De Nucci G.
Department of Pharmacology, Faculty of Medical Sciences, UNICAMP, P.O. Box 6111, 13081-970, Campinas (SP), Brazil. [email protected]
The effects of the Brazilian herbal medicine Catuama and each of its plant constituents (Paullinia cupana, Trichilia catigua, Zingiber officinalis and Ptychopetalum olacoides) were investigated on rabbit corpus cavernosum (RbCC) using a bioassay cascade. Catuama caused short-lived and dose-dependent relaxations (11% +/- 7%, 26% +/- 5% and 82% +/- 9%, at doses of 1, 3 and 10 mg, respectively). Neither the nitric oxide synthesis inhibitor N(omega)-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester (L-NAME; 10 microM) nor the soluble guanylate cyclase inhibitor ODQ (10 microM) significantly affected the Catuama-induced relaxations. Similarly, the selective ATP-dependent K(+) channel (K(ATP)) blocker glibenclamide (10 microM), the muscarinic receptor antagonist atropine (1 microM) and the voltage-dependent Na(+) channel blocker tetrodotoxin (1 microM) all failed to affect significantly the Catuama-induced relaxations. These results indicate that the relaxations induced by Catuama involve neither nitric oxide release nor K(ATP) channel activation. The extracts of P. cupana, Z. officinalis and P. olacoides caused short-lived and dose-dependent RbCC relaxations, whereas T. catigua evoked long-lasting relaxations which were occasionally preceded by a brief contractile effect. The extract of P. cupana was the most active in relaxing RbCC strips. The relaxations induced by all extracts were not significantly affected by L-NAME (10 microM). The infusion of ODQ (10 microM) had no significant effect on the P. cupana- and Z. officinalis-induced relaxations but reduced by >50% (p < 0.05) those evoked by P. olacoides and T. catigua. Incubations of RbCC with Catuama(10 mg/mL for 0.25 to 5 min) caused increases of cAMP levels (143% increase at 5 min of incubation). Incubations of RbCC with P. cupana extract (1 mg/mL) increased the cAMP levels by 200% whereas higher doses (10 and 100 mg/mL) caused smaller increases in the nucleotide levels (150% and 89%, respectively). The extracts of Z. officinalis and P. olacoides (same doses) caused smaller increases of the cAMP levels compared with the P. cupana extract, whereas T. catigua (1-100 mg) did not increase the levels of this nucleotide above the basal values. Our results show that of the four extracts assayed, P. cupana was the most effective, indicating that it is the main extract responsible for the relaxing effect of Catuama on rabbit cavernosal tissue. Copyright 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
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We know that acetylcholine is essential for sexual functioning and memory which is depleted in neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimers.
This is how Muara Puama achieves it's effects primarily by increasing acetylcholine levels. But one must be careful not to use too much acetylcholine precursors like choline, lecithin, DMAE etc. at once or too high of an individual or combined dose, and a degree of concern should be noted regarding the further addition of acetycholinisterase inhibitors, in order to avoid exess cholinergic stimulation.
Keeping this mind it has the potential as a nootropic and a phytochemical to treat alzheimers without a huge array of adverse effects seen typically with meds like aricept.
Ptychopetalum olacoides, a traditional Amazonian "nerve tonic", possesses anticholinesterase activity.
Siqueira IR, Fochesatto C, da Silva AL, Nunes DS, Battastini AM, Netto CA, Elisabetsky E.
Departamento de Bioquimica, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, RS, 90035-003, Porto Alegre, Brazil.
The cholinergic hypothesis of Alzheimer disease (AD) has provided the rationale for the current pharmacotherapy of this disease, in an attempt to downgrade the cognitive decline caused by cholinergic deficits. Nevertheless, the search for potent and long-acting acetylcholinesterase (AChE) inhibitors that exert minimal side effects to AD patients is still an ongoing effort. Amazonian communities use traditional remedies prepared with Ptychopetalum olacoides (PO, Olacaceae) roots for treating various central nervous system conditions, including those associated with aging. The fact that PO ethanol extract (POEE) has been found to facilitate memory retrieval in the step down procedure in young and aged mice prompt us to evaluate its effects on AChE activity in memory relevant brain areas. POEE significantly inhibited AChE activity in vitro in a dose- and time-dependent manner in rat frontal cortex, hippocampus and striatum; a significant inhibition was also found in these same brain areas of aged (14 months) mice after acute administration of POEE (100 mg/kg ip). We propose that such AChE inhibitory activity is a neurochemical correlate of a number of therapeutic properties traditionally claimed for P. olacoides, particularly those associated with cognition.
Anxiogenic properties of Ptychopetalum olacoides Benth. (Marapuama).
da Silva AL, Bardini S, Nunes DS, Elisabetsky E.
Curso de Pos Graduacao em Ciencias Biologicas-Bioquimica, Universidade Federaldo Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil.
Alcohol infusions of roots of Ptychopetalum olacoides Benth. (PO), known as Marapuama or Muirapuama, are used in the Brazilian Amazon as a 'nerve tonic'. Over the years PO has been found increasingly in phytoformulations and regarded as a stimulant, claimed to enhance physical and mental performances. This study determined that a P. olacoides ethanol extract (30, 100 and 300 mg/kg) decreased exploratory behaviour in the hole-board test, without interfering with locomotion or motor coordination (rota-rod test). The data are comparable to that obtained with pentylenetetrazol (40 mg/kg), suggesting an anxiogenic effect of P. olacoides.
The relaxation of isolated rabbit corpus cavernosum by the herbal medicine Catuama and its constituents.
Antunes E, Gordo WM, de Oliveira JF, Teixeira CE, Hyslop S, De Nucci G.
Department of Pharmacology, Faculty of Medical Sciences, UNICAMP, P.O. Box 6111, 13081-970, Campinas (SP), Brazil. [email protected]
The effects of the Brazilian herbal medicine Catuama and each of its plant constituents (Paullinia cupana, Trichilia catigua, Zingiber officinalis and Ptychopetalum olacoides) were investigated on rabbit corpus cavernosum (RbCC) using a bioassay cascade. Catuama caused short-lived and dose-dependent relaxations (11% +/- 7%, 26% +/- 5% and 82% +/- 9%, at doses of 1, 3 and 10 mg, respectively). Neither the nitric oxide synthesis inhibitor N(omega)-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester (L-NAME; 10 microM) nor the soluble guanylate cyclase inhibitor ODQ (10 microM) significantly affected the Catuama-induced relaxations. Similarly, the selective ATP-dependent K(+) channel (K(ATP)) blocker glibenclamide (10 microM), the muscarinic receptor antagonist atropine (1 microM) and the voltage-dependent Na(+) channel blocker tetrodotoxin (1 microM) all failed to affect significantly the Catuama-induced relaxations. These results indicate that the relaxations induced by Catuama involve neither nitric oxide release nor K(ATP) channel activation. The extracts of P. cupana, Z. officinalis and P. olacoides caused short-lived and dose-dependent RbCC relaxations, whereas T. catigua evoked long-lasting relaxations which were occasionally preceded by a brief contractile effect. The extract of P. cupana was the most active in relaxing RbCC strips. The relaxations induced by all extracts were not significantly affected by L-NAME (10 microM). The infusion of ODQ (10 microM) had no significant effect on the P. cupana- and Z. officinalis-induced relaxations but reduced by >50% (p < 0.05) those evoked by P. olacoides and T. catigua. Incubations of RbCC with Catuama(10 mg/mL for 0.25 to 5 min) caused increases of cAMP levels (143% increase at 5 min of incubation). Incubations of RbCC with P. cupana extract (1 mg/mL) increased the cAMP levels by 200% whereas higher doses (10 and 100 mg/mL) caused smaller increases in the nucleotide levels (150% and 89%, respectively). The extracts of Z. officinalis and P. olacoides (same doses) caused smaller increases of the cAMP levels compared with the P. cupana extract, whereas T. catigua (1-100 mg) did not increase the levels of this nucleotide above the basal values. Our results show that of the four extracts assayed, P. cupana was the most effective, indicating that it is the main extract responsible for the relaxing effect of Catuama on rabbit cavernosal tissue. Copyright 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
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