Topic
Withania somnifera
About: Withania somnifera is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 2116 publications have been published within this topic receiving 43404 citations. The topic is also known as: Ashwaganda & Indian ginseng.
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TL;DR: Dry leaf powder of W. somnifera may prove to be a potential therapeutic agent to attenuate neuroinflammation associated with obesity and may prevent its co-morbidities.
Abstract: The epidemic of obesity has reached alarming levels in both developing and developed nations. Excessive calorie intake and sedentary lifestyle due to technological advancements are the main causal factors for overweight and obesity among the human population. Obesity has been associated with a number of co-morbidities such as hypertension, type 2 diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular diseases, and neurodegeneration and dementia. The progression of neurological disorders in obese subjects has been mainly attributed to neuroinflammation. Withania somnifera has been used in numerous Ayurvedic formulations owing to its wide array of health-promoting properties. The current study was designed to test the hypothesis whether dry leaf powder of W. somnifera has anxiolytic and anti-neuroinflammatory potential in diet-induced obesity. Young adult female rats were divided into four groups: low fat diet group (LFD) fed with regular chow feed, high fat diet group (HFD) fed with diet containing 30% fat by weight, low fat diet plus extract group (LFDE) fed with regular chow feed supplemented with dry leaf powder of W. somnifera 1 mg/g of body weight (ASH), and high fat diet plus extract group (HFDE) fed with diet containing 30% fat by weight and supplemented with ASH. All the animals were kept on respective feeding regimen for 12 weeks; following which, the animals were tested for their anxiety-like behavior using elevated plus maze test. The animals were sacrificed and used to study various inflammatory markers such as GFAP, Iba1, PPARγ, iNOS, MCP-1, TNFα, IL-1β, IL-6, and various markers of NF-κB pathway by Western blotting and quantitative real-time PCR. Serum levels of leptin, insulin and pro-inflammatory cytokines were also assayed. ASH treated rats showed less anxiety levels as compared to HFD animals. At molecular level, ASH ameliorated the HFD-induced reactive gliosis and microgliosis and suppressed the expression of inflammatory markers such as PPARγ, iNOS, MCP-1, TNFα, IL-1β, and IL-6. Further, ASH ameliorated leptin and insulin resistance and prevented HFD-induced apoptosis. Dry leaf powder of W. somnifera may prove to be a potential therapeutic agent to attenuate neuroinflammation associated with obesity and may prevent its co-morbidities.
23 citations
TL;DR: Quantitative PCR analysis showed an effect of P. indica elicitation on the regulatory genes of MVA, MEP and withanolides biosynthetic pathways, viz. hmgr, fpps, ss, se, cas, dxs and dxr in callus and cell suspension cultures.
Abstract: Withania somnifera, is an important medicinal plant in India, also known as Ashwagandha, that contains the bioactive compounds- withanolides and withaferin A. The endophytic fungus Piriformospora indica has been shown to be an elicitor stimulating plant growth and metabolism. Different concentrations of cell homogenate, culture filtrate and individual culture discs of P. indica were added to cell suspension and callus cultures of W. somnifera at different time intervals (10, 15, 20, 25 and 5, 10, 15, 20 days respectively) to observe the effect on cell biomass and withaferin A production. Of all the concentrations of P. indica used to study the effect on withaferin A production in cell suspension cultures, the maximum enhancement was achieved with 3 % cell homogenate (2.04 times), followed by 3 % culture filtrate (1.78 times) and culture disc (1.46 times). Quantitative PCR analysis showed an effect of P. indica elicitation on the regulatory genes of MVA, MEP and withanolides biosynthetic pathways, viz. hmgr, fpps, ss, se, cas, dxs and dxr in callus and cell suspension cultures. The highest gene expression of 11.2, 8.7 and 6.9 times was observed with hmgr among all the expressed genes in cell suspension and callus cultures with 3 % cell homogenate, 3 % culture filtrate and disc respectively, in comparison with the controls.
23 citations
Journal Article•
TL;DR: The chemopreventive activity of an extract of Withania somnifera roots was examined in female Sprague-Dawley rats that received the mammary carcinogen methylnitrosourea, and results indicate that the root extract significantly reduced the rate of cell division in the mammaries.
Abstract: The chemopreventive activity of an extract of Withania somnifera (WS) roots was examined in female Sprague-Dawley rats that received the mammary carcinogen methylnitrosourea (MNU). The dose of the extract, administered by gavage, was 150 mg/kg body weight daily for 155 days, after injection of MNU. Rats in the treated group (N=15) had an average of 3.47 tumors, and rats in the control group (N=15) had 4.53, a reduction of 23%. The average weights of tumors were 4.98 g for rats in the treated group and 6.30 g for the controls, a difference of 21%. Labeling indices for Ki67 and proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) markers in cancers of the treated group were 42% and 38% lower, respectively, than those of the corresponding indices for the control group. These results indicate that the root extract significantly reduced the rate of cell division in the mammary tumors.
23 citations
TL;DR: Withania somnifera as a nephroprotective and nephrocurative molecule significantly restore the renal function on gentamicin-induced nephrotoxicity in wistar rats.
Abstract: Gentamicin induced renal complications are well known in humans and animals. Medicinal properties of Withania somnifera (L.) Dunal, Solanaceae, are recognized to improve renal functions. However, the pharmacological function of W. somnifera is not completely understood. We sought to unravel medicinal therapeutic function of W. somnifera on gentamicin-induced nephrotoxicity in wistar rats. Twenty-four adult male wistar rats evenly divided into four groups to evaluate in vivo nephroprotective and nephrocurative function of W. somnifera in gentamicin induced nephrotoxic rats. Experimental design as follows: Group I, saline control for 21 days; Group II, gentamicin nephrotoxic control for eight days; Group III, alcoholic extract of W. somnifera for 13 days + simultaneous administration of gentamicin and W. somnifera, from day 14 to 21 (nephroprotective) and Group IV, gentamicin for 8 days + alcoholic extract of W. somnifera from day 9 to 21 (nephrocurative). End of experiment, respective serum and kidney tissue samples used to analyze renal function. Withania somnifera as a nephroprotective and nephrocurative molecule significantly restore the renal function on gentamicin-induced nephrotoxicity. This phenomenon is accompanied with significantly reduced blood urea nitrogen, creatine, alkaline phosphatase, gamma-glutamyl transferase, albumin, total protein, calcium, potassium and kidney malondialdehyde concentrations. Additionally, W. somnifera significantly increased antioxidant activities of glutathione and superoxide dismutase to protect renal tissue damage from gentamicin in wistar rats. Over all, W. somnifera treated nephroprotective animal shows improved recovery compared to nephrocuartive. The nephroprotective or nephrocurative effect of W. somnifera could be due to inherent antioxidant and free-radical-scavenging principle(s). In the near future, biologically active compounds of W. somnifera (withanolides) could appear as a novel therapeutic molecule for renal disorders.
23 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the results obtained showed that majority of the plants under study were found to inhibit COX-2 activity significantly as compared to COX1 activity, however, more detailed studies are required to assess the safety and efficacy of these plants.
23 citations