Panax Ginseng Regulates Brain Monoamines in Lipopolysaccharide-Induced Experimental Brain Injury

Administration of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) impaired antioxidant mechanisms, increased peroxidation and impaired mitochondrial redox activity causing brain inflammation as well as neuronal damage and impairment of brain monoamines. Panax ginseng (P.ginseng) is a well-known herbal medicine; the main active constituent of ginseng is ginsenosides or ginseng saponins that have neuroprotective activity. The aim of our experiment was to study the role of Panax ginseng root in maintaining brain monoamines levels through the protection against LPS - induced oxidative stress in rat model. In this experiment, we used forty rats and divided them into: control, ginseng, lipopolysaccharide and ginseng treated groups. malondialdehyde (MDA) and paraoxonase activity (PON-1) were estimated colorimetrically. Comet assay technique was used to determine the percent of DNA damage in addition to brain monoamines assessment by HPLC. The data showed that lipopolysaccharide significantly increased brain MDA, DNA damage percent and brain monoamines concomitant with a reduction in serum PON-1. Contrarily, ginseng supplementation improved these values in treated group. P. ginseng is a very important supplement that protects against brain injury and its benefit effect may be attributed to its high amounts of ginsenosides that have antioxidant, anti-inflammatory effects that augment impairment of brain monoamines