The Effect of Intraperitoneal Administration of Oleuropein on Pentylenetetrazole Induced Epilepsy in Mail Rat

Background & Objective: Epilepsy is one of the most common neurological disorders in humans, which appears as sudden, episodic, repetitive, and unpredictable seizures, and these patients suffer from memory impairment. Medicinal herbs have long been used to treat epilepsy. In this study, the impact of effective oleuropein on the time of arising of attacks and the rate of attack’s incidence of tonic, clonic, tonic-clonic, and total seizure longevity in male rats was investigated. 
Materials & Methods: Forty rats were randomly divided into four groups of 10. The negative control group (the recipient of normal saline), the positive control group (the recipient of diazepam 1 mg/kg), and the two treatment groups (the recipient of doses of 10 and 20 mg/kg of oleuropein). After 30 min of oleuropein administration, saline, or diazepam, pentylenetetrazole was injected intraperitoneally into rats’ bodies at a dose of 85 mg/kg, and 30 min after injection, seizure parameters were evaluated. Data were analyzed by one-way ANOVA and Tukey’s statistical tests. 
Results: Injection of the oleuropein significantly increased the threshold of seizures in the form of initial delay at the arising of seizure in the positive control group and treatment groups (P< 0.001). Furthermore, it reduces the time of seizures in different phases (P< 0.001). In addition, a dose of 10 mg/kg oleuropein has the highest effect on total seizure longevity. 
Conclusion: This study showed that oleuropein has an appropriate anti-seizure effect and future studies appear to be necessary for further understanding of the mechanism.