The European Journal of Pharmaceutical and Medical Research published recently ‘ Oxidative Stress and Epilepsy, A Review’, that indicates Argan oil (the roasted, culinary type of argan oil) can be beneficial to fight epilepsy.
The study suggested that Argan oil pretreatment is capable of attenuating (reducing) seizure severity and oxidative stress in the hippocampus of Wistar rats, indicating a neuroprotective effect of Argan oil against temporal lobe epilepsy.
Authors: dr. Ankur Rohilla, dr. Sanjeev Kalra, the Rajendra Institute of Technology and Sciences, Haryana; dr.Gurfateh Singh, Rayat and Bahra Institute of Pharmacy, Punjab and dr.Jainendra Jain, Department of Pharmaceutical sciences, Ram-Eesh group of Institutions, UP, all in India.
Epilepsy, a serious neurological disorder of the brain resulting in involuntary muscle movements, a disturbed level of consciousness, affecting 50 million people worldwide. About 75% of people with epilepsy living in low- and middle income countries do not get the treatment they need. Stigma and discrimination of the patients and their families is not uncommon and impacts the quality of life.
The study addresses the relation between epilepsy and oxidative stress ( the imbalance of the production of free radicals and the body’s ability to fight their harmful effects by antioxidants and strategies to prevent the development and progression of epilepsy.
In this in-vivo study Argan oil in a pretreatment was investigated for the latency (time interval) to factors like: first seizure, seizure severity, weight loss, mortality rate, lipid peroxidation level, nitrite level and catalase activity.
Pretreatment with Argan oil increased the latency to first seizures, decreased the weight loss and reduced the mortality rate after SE. Also, Argan oil pretreatment produced significant decrease of the lipid peroxidation and nitrite levels.The study suggested that Argan oil pretreatment is capable of attenuating seizure severity and oxidative stress in the hippocampus of Wistar rats, indicating a neuroprotective effect of Argan oil against temporal lobe epilepsy.
Like many of the research studies we published about, this is one of the world’s first on this issue.A 2016 study by Dr. Youssef Bahbiti et al. aims at investigation Argan Oil effects on, for example,latency to first seizure, seizure severity, lipid peroxidation level, and catalase activity in the hippocampus, using wistar rats. 'Anticonvulsant effect of argan oil on pilocarpine model induced status epilepticus in wistar rats.'.
Conclusion: 'for the first time our results sugggest that argan oil pretreatment is capable of attenuating seizure severity and oxidative stress in the hippocampus of Wistar rats. This indicates Argan oil may exhibit a neuroprotection against the temporal lobe epilepsy.' The study also states 'further investigations are in progress to confirm this pharmacological property.' Great!