Abstract

Background: Low level of acetylcholine (ACh) is an important hallmark of Alzheimer's disease (AD), a common type of progressive neurodegenerative disorder. Effective treatment strategies rely mostly on either enhancing the cholinergic function of the brain by improving the level of acetylcholine from being a breakdown by cholinesterase enzymes. Beside this atherothrombosis is a major cause of global life threatening cerebral diseases. Traditionally Tamarindus indica (L.) has widely known for its medicinal values. Our aim is to investigate the cholinesterase inhibitory activities as well as thrombolytic activities of the bark and seeds crude methanolic extracts (CME) in the treatment of AD and clotting disorder. Method: The crude methanol extract was prepared by cold extraction method and were assessed for acetylcholinesterase (AChE) and butyrylcholinesterase (BuChE) inhibitory activity by the Ellman’s method. For thrombolytic activity clot lysis method were applied. Results: To compare both the fraction, extract from the bark got more AChE inhibitory activity than the seed with the IC50 of 268.09 µg/ml and 287.15 µg/ml respectively. The inhibitory activity of BuChE quiet similar to AChE as IC50 values of both the fractions were 201.25 µg/ml and 254.71 µg/ml. Again in-vitro thrombolytic activity of bark was 30.17% and with seed it was 22.53%. Conclusion: The results revealed that the CME of bark and seed both have moderate Cholinesterase inhibitory activities as well as thrombolytic activities which may be useful in the treatment of AD as well as clotting disorder.

Key words: Alzheimer's disease, Cholinesterase inhibition, T. indica, Thrombolysis