Evaluating Possible Spatial Memory Enhancement and Psychosomatic Balance Using Daucus Carota Juice in Wistar Rats

Abstract

Daucus carota (carrot) is one of the main vegetable crop cultivated worldwide. They are good sources of carbohydrates, minerals, dietary fiber, and phytochemicals like carotenes and phenolic compounds. In this study, the effect of carrot juice on memory impairment and anxiety-like behaviour was investigated. The study was carried out using memory and anxiety tasks such as passive avoidance test, navigation and elevated plus maze. This test involved three trials per week for a total period of three weeks. Twenty wistar rats of weight 120-150 g were used. The animals were divided to four groups having five animals each group. Group one served as the control and was given feed and saline water. Group two was administered low dose of carrot juice (1 ml/100 g) orally. Group three was given an intermediate dose of 2ml/100g orally. The fourth group was administered a high dose (3 ml/100 g) of carrot juice orally. Elevated plus maze test was used to observe anxiety in the rat. Elevated plus maze usually used as a screening test for putative anxiolytic or anxiogenic compounds in neurobiological anxiety research. Navigation and passive avoidance test were used to test for memory impairment.  Navigational maze is employed in behavioral neuroscience to study spatial stated that the test could be a very precise study of learning memory and spatial working and is also capable of accessing damages to cortical regions of the brain. The passive avoidance test is useful for evaluating the effect of novel chemicals entities on learning and memory as well as studying the mechanism involved in cognition. The study revealed that carrot juice has significant effects (p<0.05) in memory improvement but has no anxiolytic significance.