Antioxidant enzyme activities and glutathione levels in various areas of the rat brain after pentylenetetrazole-induced epilepsy: the effect of Centella asiatica (Gotu kola).

Abstract

About 50 million individuals throughout the globe suffer from epilepsy, the most common
neurological illness, which manifests itself in the form of convulsive episodes. Centella asiatica
(CA) has a long history of medicinal usage in India's Ayurvedic culture. This research aims to
identify the antiepileptic properties of the medicinal herb CA. Epileptic rats were induced with
pentylenetetrazole (PTZ), and the fractionated extracts were shown to be effective against these
animals. Control and test groups were compared with respect to their levels of enzymatic and nonenzymatic antioxidants such as reduced glutathione (GSH), glutathione peroxidase (GPx),
glutathione reductase (GR), glutathione-S-transferase (GST), superoxide dismutase (SOD), and
catalase (CAT). The CA extracts considerably reduced the number of epileptic seizures caused in
the rats by (PTZ).