The inhibitory effects of jujuboside A on rat hippocampus in vivo and in vitro.

Jujuboside A (JuA) is a glycoside extracted from the seed of Ziziphus jujuba Mill var. spinosa (Bunge) Hu ex H F Chou, a Chinese herbal medicine, which has long been known as a sedative-hypnotic drug. The present study used the method of intracerebroventricular (i.c.v.) JuA in vivo to detect the effect of JuA on paired-pulse responses of dentate gyrus granule cells in urethane-anaesthetized rats, and the method of hippocampal slice bathing in JuA in vitro to detect the effects of JuA on the responses of CA1 pyramidal cells. The results showed that JuA significantly decreased the slopes of excitatory postsynaptic potential (EPSP) and the amplitudes of population spike (PS) in the first responses of granule cells and significantly decreased EPSP and PS in the responses of CA1 pyramidal cells. The good quantitative correspondence between in vitro and in vivo results indicates that studies using hippocampal formation allow research on the inhibitory effects of JuA in the rat central nervous system (CNS). In conclusion, our study accessed the inhibitory effects of JuA on hippocampal formation in vivo and in vitro, which contributed to the further research on the mechanism of its effects on CNS.