Abstract

PRELIMINARY PHYTOCHEMICAL SCREENING AND MEMORY ENHANCING ACTIVITY OF MENTHA ARVENSIS LINN IN RAT BRAIN HOMOGENATES

Nazima Ameen and Sabeeha Shafi*

ABSTRACT

Mentha arvensis Linn is a plant that is commonly called as Pudina and used in our daily cuisines in India. It belongs to family Lamiaceae that is native to the temperate regions of Europe and western and central Asia, east to the Himalaya and eastern Siberia, and America. The plant is a herbaceous perennial plant growing to 10–60 cm (rarely to 100 cm) tall. Its leaves are in opposite pairs, simple, 2–6.5 cm long and 1–2 cm broad, hairy, and with a coarsely serrated margin and the flowers of the plant are pale purple (occasionally white or pink), in clusters on the stem, each flower 3–4 mm long. The plant is widely distributed all over India. It has a number of pharmacological activities. Reported pharmacological action include antiulcerogenic effect, Inflammatory bowel syndrome (IBS), Antibacterial, Antifungal, Anticancer, Hepatoprotective, Antidiabetic, Anti Candida, Analgesic, Antiallergic and Anti-inflammatory. Very little literature is available regarding its memory enhancing activity. The present study was undertaken to study its memory enhancing activity.

Keywords: Mentha arvensis, herb.