Screening of Taxillus Tomentosus Ethanolic Extract for Nootropic and Antistress Activity in Rats

In recent years, attempts have been made to develop drugs for treatment of dementia and attention deficit disorders to improve memory and learning. Some nootropic agents (eg: Piracetam) are widely used but the resulting chemo phobia associated with them and other similar agents has made their use limited. So it is worthwhile to explore medicines from the traditional system in the treatment of these cognitive disorders. Stress is a broad, ambiguous, and often poorly understood concept. In its most simplified Sense, stress is what one feels when life’s demands exceed one’s ability to meet those demands. The objective of the study is to study the effect of ethanolic extract of Taxillus tomentosus for nootropic and antistress activity in experimental animals. It has been documented in traditional system that Taxillus tomentosus plant belonging to family loranthaceae effective in nervine disorders, acts as a nervine tonic. In a survey of ethnobotanical literature, numerous plant preparations have been used in the treatment of age related cognitive disorders in human beings in European countries; so in present study is to evaluate the same on Taxillus tomentosus alone by using various screening models in rats. However, this plant has not been scientifically investigated for the same. Therefore, the present study is designed to evaluate effect of whole plant extract on learning and memory.