Ginseng Improves Memory in Alzheimer’s Disease Rats

Alzheimer’s disease is a condition that is estimated to affect as many as 24 million people worldwide, with 5.5 million being in the United States and is expected to double every 20 years until 2040.[4] Given that there is no cure for Alzheimer’s disease yet, these rates are a cause for concern. Pharmacological interventions do exist, aiming to slow down the disease’s progression, but are often accompanied by side effects such as vomiting, nausea, or body aches. Therefore, more treatment options need to be developed and made available to patients.

In light of this, a group of researchers set out to examine whether Panax ginseng would affect memory in rats which were induced with Alzheimer’s disease via scopolamine injections. The researchers used several experimental groups in order to test how various conditions would affect memory.

The control group in this experiment was composed of rats with memory impairments which received a placebo (salt) while the experimental groups received either ginseng root extract or memantine (a drug approved by the Food & Drug Administration for Alzheimer’s disease). The ginseng group received either 100 mg/kg or 200 mg/kg per day while the memantine group received 20 mg/kg per day. This supplementation schedule lasted for 14 days and was administered once per day via an oral gavage.[5]

In order to assess the rats’ neurocognitive abilities, a Morris Water Maze was used. This maze is essentially a basin filled with water from which the rodents will try to escape. The pool also contains a platform that is slightly visible above the water surface or submerged just below the surface. The platform is meshed or grooved to allow an easy grip, and it acts as a shelter for animals allowing them to escape the water and stand on the platform thus avoiding the stress of having to swim.

Prior to inducing the memory impairments, the rats were trained in this maze, in order to establish memories. Then, after scopolamine-induction and after the supplementation schedule (which spanned for 14 days), the rats were subjected to the Morris Water Maze test again, in order to determine how well they remembered the location of the hidden platform which they had previously learned.[5]

Test results show that the animals which were treated with scopolamine, in order to induce memory impairments, performed much worse than the rats which were given memantine or ginseng. In fact, the rats which were given ginseng at a 200 mg/kg dose had the highest significant effect and outperformed the rats given memantine, based on decreased escape latencies and an increase in the number of crossings.

This experimental design demonstrates the efficacy and worthwhileness of studying ginseng’s impacts on cognition and behavior, especially given the fact that it was able to induce stronger effects than pharmaceutical drugs in certain conditions.