Research Article Neuroprotective Properties of a Standardized Extract from

Copyright © 2014 Iana Calou et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Myracrodruon urundeuva Fr. All. (Anacardiaceae) is a Brazilian medicinal species, which is common to the Northeastern Brazilian semiarid region, whose stem-bark is widely used in folk medicine. It is an endangered species, presenting as main bioactive components tannins and chalcones. In this work, we studied the neuroprotective effects of a standardized extract from cultivated M. urundeuva (SEMU), in a model of Parkinson’s disease. Thus, a unilateral injection of 6-OHDA was done into the rat right stratum. The animals were submitted to stereotaxic surgery, then treated with SEMU (5, 10, 20, or 40mg/kg, p.o.) for 2 weeks, subjected to behavioral tests, and euthanized for striata dissections and neurochemical, histological, and immunohistochemical analyses.We showed, for the first time, that SEMU reverted behavioral alterations seen in the 6-OHDA-lesioned group and partially blocked the decrease in DA and DOPAC contents. The numbers of viable neurons and TH immunopositive cells were increased by SEMU. In addition, the SEMU-treated 6-OHDA groups showed lower numbers of GFAP and OX-42 immunopositive cells. The neuroprotective action of SEMU is possibly related to the antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties ofM. urundeuva, pointin