Alzheimer’s disease (AD), has been recognized as a common and challenging dementia that primarily affects the elderly population. Recent studies have demonstrated that various compounds possessing antioxidant activity attenuated the oxidative stress induced by amyloid β-protein (Aβ), inhibited the formation and extension of amyloid fibrils and decreased the plaque burden. Besides the free radicals homeostasis, the cholinergic deficit was also proposed to play a crucial role in memory impairment, an important feature in this condition. Therefore, the cholinergic hypofunction induced by a cholinotoxin, AF64A, has been developed as an animal model of dementia in AD.
Bacopa monnieri (L.) Wettst., it belongs to the family Scrophulariaceae. Numerous studies also showed that this plant extract possessed anxiolytic, anti-depression and antioxidant activity. Based on its reputation for nervetonic and its antioxidant activity, we hypothesized that this plant extract could mitigate the memory impairment and neurodegeneration in animal model of Alzheimer’s disease.