The objective of the present study was to evaluate the antidepressant action of Withania somnifera (WS) as well as its interaction with the conventional antidepressant drugs and to delineate the possible mechanism of its antidepressant action using forced swimming model in mice. Effect of different doses of WS, fluoxetine and imipramine were studied on forced swimming test induced mean immobili...

Withania somnifera Dunal (Ashwangdha), a popular medicinal herb of Ayurveda is used for health, vitality, longevity and rejuvenation properties. It is a common ingredient of polyherbal or herbomineral formulations and used for preventive or therapeutic polypharmaceutical use. Present article emphasized on the studies, which provides the pharmacological basis of its use in cardiovascular disease...

The present study was aimed at documenting the detailed ethnomedicinal knowledge of an unexplored area of Pakistan. Semistructured interviews were taken with 55 informants randomly chosen regarding detailed ethnomedicinal and sociocultural information. The study exposed 67 medicinal plant species used to prepare 110 recipes and the major modes of herbal formulation were decoction and powdering ...

Contents 1. Introduction 1.1 Neurodegenerative disease in perspective 1.2. Searching for symptoms in traditional medicine 1.3. Approaches to scientific investigation 1.4. Plants as a source of useful therapeutic agents in neurodegenerative diseases 2. Plants and their constituents from Ayurvedic medicine 2.1 Withania somnifera 2.2. Bacopa monniera 2.3. Centella asiatica 2.4. Mucuna pruriens 3. ...

An improved Agrobacterium rhizogenes-mediated genetic transformation of Withania somnifera (L.) Dunal was developed using the bacterial strain R1000 with leaf segment explants of in vitro raised plantlets. Out of the three strains used (R1000, MTCC 2364 and MTCC 532), the strain R1000 proved to be more efficient than others. Among the different conditions tested, the highest (93.3 %) transforma...

Withania somnifera (L.) Dunal is a valued medicinal plant with pharmaceutical applications. The present study was undertaken to analyze the salicylic acid induced leaf transcriptome of W. somnifera. A total of 45.6 million reads were generated and the de novo assembly yielded 73,523 transcript contig with average transcript contig length of 1620 bp. A total of 71,062 transcripts were annotated ...

Withania somnifera L. Dunal (Family: Solanaceae) is extensively used in traditional Indian medicine as a nerve tonic and is thought to improve memory. We assessed the acetylcholinesterase (AChE) inhibitory activity and kinetics of an aqueous extract of W. somnifera root, in the context of its potential role in regulating the levels of acetylcholine (ACh) in the brain. The assessment of cholines...

Withania somnifera (L) Dunal. and Solanum surattense Burm f., the two medicinally important members of family Solanaceae, were investigated for induction of hairy roots using soil borne bacterium, Agrobacterium rhizogenes. Explants like stem segments, hypocotyls and leaves with midrib were infected with the bacterium in vitro. In both plants, extensive hairy roots were induced from leaf explant...