Objective: The aim of the research is to establish the plausibility of reducing the effects of the actions of reactive oxygen species, produced by glutamate excitotoxicity, with antioxidants.

Background: Oxidative stress is seen as pathological characteristic in neurodegenerative diseases; it entails the production of oxidative radicals. The oxygen species produced are cytotoxic to the neuronal cell membrane, consequently, causing neuronal cell death. It is putative that the oxidative stress, if arrested, may be a prospective therapeutic approach to slowing down the progression of neurodegeneration in Neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease and Multiple System Atrophy.

Method: The Experimental methods involved two groups of laboratory rats. The first group was treated with solely Monosodium glutamate while the other group had co-administration of Monosodium glutamate and ginger. The experiment lasted for 15 days for both groups, after which the animals were subjected to neurobehavioural assessments to monitor spatial memory, navigation, exploratory activities and anxiety. After the tests, the animals were sacrificed and the brain tissues excised by dorsal craniotomy and subsequently, processed for histological and histochemical procedures.

Results: Results observed showed the rats co-administered with monosodium glutamate and ginger performed better in spatial memory and were less anxious than rats given monosodium glutamate alone.
The histological tissues slides showed necrotic cells, vacuolation and nuclear degeneration in cells of hippocampus and cerebellum of experimental rats given mainly Monosodium glutamate. The brain slides of the experimental group also showed diminished Nissil-stain intensity, showing reduced Nissil bodies, hence, degenerative endoplasmic reticulum; the other group treated with ginger alongside monosodium glutamate showed reduced or lesser histological deterioration and stained better with Nissil stain.

Conclusion: From the experiment, antioxidants, present in ginger, in form of flavonoids attenuated the extent of oxidative stress damage induced by glutamate excitotoxicity by mopping up of the reactive oxygen species producing the neural death; hence, food antioxidants could be a promising prospect in the therapeutic approaches to slowdown the progression of neurodegeneration, which is the hallmark of  most neurodegenerative diseases.

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/antioxidants-in-foods-a-primary-potential-remedy-to-neurodegeneration/