Prevention of cerebral oxidative injury by post-ischemic intravenous administration of Shengmai San

Shengmai San (SMS) is a traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) comprising three different herbal components, Panax ginseng, Ohiopogon japonicus and Fructus schisandrae and has been used for treating coronary heart diseases (Bensky and Barolet, 1990). It was shown that SMS effectively prevented cerebral oxidative injury in rats when it administered into the duodenum before cerebral ischemia-reperfusion. In the present study, we examined whether post-ischemic administration of SMS can ameliorate cerebral ischemia-reperfusion injury in rats as well. Results showed that SMS injected immediately after ischemia also prevented the ischemia-reperfusion injury, when the effect was evaluated by the formation of protein carbonyl and thiobarbituric acid reactive substance (TBARS), and the loss of glutathione peroxidase (GPX). The preventative potential of SMS was decreased rapidly dependent on the time lag until SMS was injected after ischemia. However, it was noted that intravenously administered SMS protected the oxidative injury approximately 30% even after 60 min of reperfusion in terms of protein carbonyl formation. It is thus suggested that SMS injection might be useful for preventing the progression of injury in cerebral infarction after stroke.