3.2.4. In vitro cholinesterases inhibition
The anti-cholinesterase activity of the extracts is shown inTable 3. Water/ethanol and ethanol extracts were the most active
in inhibiting AChE and BChE at the final concentration tested
(2.5 mg/ml). The ethanol extract from in vitro cultures was the
most effective AChE and BChE inhibitor (87.69 ± 0.48 and
61.78 ± 0.48%, respectively;p60.05). We recently proved that different active compounds, including terpenoids, recovered from the
aerial parts ofL. viridisalso have anti-cholinesterase activity (Costa
et al., 2011, 2012a). Galanthamine was used as reference inhibitor
and was more active against AChE (67.78 ± 4.36%) than BChE
(40.16 ± 0.76%), which is not surprising since galanthamine is a
selective AChE inhibitor (Bores and Kosley, 1996)