Bacopa as Crude Extracts Improve Outcomes in Spinal Cord Injuries in Rodent

BACKGROUND Spinal cord injury is a major cause of disability with most treatment modalities still in open question. Some alternative medicine treatments are moving into preclinical trials worldwide. Brahmi is used in the Ayurvedic system of medicine for centuries. Traditionally used as a brain tonic to enhance memory, learning and concentration, and in some previous work shows neural regeneration in hippocampal cells. This study was done to look at the role of one of these neuroprotective plant products in spinal cord injury based on the hypothesis that if neural stem cells differentiate with more dendrites in vitro, it may do the same in vivo with clinical benefit. METHODS Controlled spinal cord injury in form of hemisection was done in rodents that were housed in the animal house of Sikkim Manipal Institute of Medical Sciences, followed by administration dose of bacopa. The comparative study was done by looking at the improvement in hind limb movement by known study methods which were modified for our study. RESULTS The result of rodents shows a more rapid recovery through catwalk and IBB scoring treated with crude bacopa than control one. The histological evaluation was also looked after sacrificing the rodent at the end of the study which corroborates the functional findings of improvement in neural regeneration in the spinal cord. CONCLUSIONS Bacopa crude extracts seem to be beneficial in spinal cord injury. Evaluation of different bacopasides to find which component of the crude product is beneficial.