Moringa seed essential oil improves sedative and hypnotic effects by increasing GABA in the hypothalamus and reducing 5-HT levels in serum through the olfactory pathway in rats

Abstract

Abstract Insomnia is a common frequently occurring disease, and the therapeutic drugs have dependence and side effects. Moringa is a kind of plant used for both medicine and food. Moringa seed (MS) is rich in volatile oil. Nowadays, MS has been initially used to treat nervous system disease; however, there are few reports on the treatment of insomnia with essential oil of MS by aromatherapy. Therefore, this study aimed to extract MS essential oil and analyze its effect of improving sleep through animal experiments. This study used petroleum ether thermal extraction abstract essential oil in MS. It was subjected to compositional analysis using Gas Chromatograph Mass Spectrometer (GC-MS). SD rats were divided into seven concentration groups (Control, Model, Natural Recovery, Positive Control, High, Medium and Low). The insomnia model was established by intraperitoneal injection of p-chlorophenyl alanine (PCPA) when the successful model establishment, the Positive Control group was injected with chloral hydrate solution; essential oil at concentrations of 10%, 5%, and 2.5% was used for aromatherapy in the High, Medium and Low groups; 1% Tween-80 was used for aromatherapy in the Natural Recovery group. The results of MS essential oil were analyzed by observing the general condition of rats in each group, open field test, pentobarbital sodium righting test, detecting the content of serum 5-HT and hypothalamic GABA. It was found to be rich in oleic acid, palmitoleic acid, stigmasterol, γ-Stigmasterol, and other substances by GC-MS in MS essential oil. Through the general condition of rats, behavioral tests as well as blood biochemical assays. It is known that MS essential oil aromatherapy can reduce the rat's reciprocal tear behavior, increase the rat's activity interest, and exploration ability and increase the content of 5-HT in rat serum and GABA in the hypothalamus. Therefore, MS have a sedative and hypnotic effect.