Therapeutic Effects of Rosa Damascena as an Ancient Herb on Neuro- Inflammatory Disorders

Rosa damascena ( R. damascena) is an erect shrub from the Rosaceae family. Flowers of this plant are large, showy and colorful. R. damascena today are highly cultivated all over the world, including Iran (especialy in Kashan). In addition to its perfuming effect,flowers, petals and hips (seed-pot) of R. damascena are used for medical purposes. Several pharmacological properties including antibacterial, antioxidant, antiinflammatory, hypnotic, antidiabetic, antidepressant and relaxant effects have been reported for this plant.Materials and Methods: We searched the literature available in Scopus, PubMed, Google scholar and Science Direct databases for English articles published until 2000. For this purpose, we used 3 keywords for R. damascena, 15 for animal models and 10 for nervous system disorders. Results: This review article summarized a variety of in vitro and in vivo studies in order to find out the effects of R. damascena in nervous system. It was shown in the articles methanolic extract of R. damascena improves spatial learning and memory parameters. The increase of the dendrite length in R.damascena treated group was seen. The R. damascena extract have anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects in nervous system diseases. Moreover, the essential oil of R. damascena had no anti-inflammatory effect while the hydroalcoholic extract could significantly reduce edema, maybe acted by inhibiting the mediators of acute inflammation. Conclusion: The present reviewis an effort to provide a detailed scientific literature about pharmacological activities of the plant on nervous system. The R. damascena extracts have antinflammatory and anti-oxidant effects. It can be claimed that these effects have been due to the functions ofmultifactorial flavonoids, polyphenols and secondary active metabolites.