Background: Turmeric is a yellow-orange spice found mainly in India and other parts of Asia and South America, and is widely used for its medicinal properties. Curcumin, the main part of the turmeric rhizome, may have properties that can improve the memory of mice in a step-through latency test.
Aims and Objectives: In this study, turmeric was utilized to determine its effect on the memory of mice using the Morris water maze (MWM) to assess spatial memory of rodents.
Materials and Methods: Determination of the effect of intake of turmeric powder in sterile olive oil was observed, as well as the effects of the different doses of administration (control, 5 mg/kg, 15 mg/kg, and 45 mg/kg) of turmeric based on the performance of mice in the MWM. Further investigation was done by analyzing the apoptotic count on the hippocampal area of the mouse brain.
Results: No significant effects were detected on the analysis of both the pre-treatment and post-treatment data on the MWM test, which may imply that the observed downhill trend may be due to chance alone. On the other hand, the significant difference brought about by the treatments of 5 mg/kg, 15 mg/kg, and 45 mg/kg doses on the comparison against the control on the histological analysis by counting the apoptotic cells on the mouse hippocampus was observed.
Conclusion: The effect of memory improvement of turmeric administration is, therefore, due to the preventive effect of the turmeric against oxidative stress and its ability to inhibit the apoptosis, or programmed cell death, of neurons. Thus, turmeric has the ability to protect brain cells from deterioration and maybe a potential neuroprotective agent if studied further.
Key words: Apoptosis; Curcumin; Hippocampus; Memory; Morris Water Maze; Turmeric
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