Unraveling the potency of naturally derived Virgin coconut oil in modulating chronic restraint stress-induced spatial
Rucha Dafale1, Shobha U Kamath2, Gitika Bhasin3
1Department of Physiology, Kasturba Medical College, Manipal, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal, India.
Background And Objectives:
Stress in day-to-day life affects the body system differently by altering homeostasis and biological processes. The foremost sign of chronic stress-induced disorders is reflected in behavioral activity. Chronic stress affects the brain negatively, it modulates neurobehavioral activity and impairs the associated activities like learning, memory, and cognition. Emerging evidence suggests that virgin coconut oil (VCO), is an abundant source of natural antioxidants with anti-inflammatory, antidepressant, and neuroprotective potential. However, VCO's efficacy in ameliorating chronic restraint stress-induced abnormal changes is rarely understood. Hence, we aimed to evaluate VCO's neuroprotective potential in attenuating chronic restraint stress-induced neurobehavioral and biochemical alteration in rats.
Methods:
A total of eighteen male Wistar rats were allocated into three groups (n = 6/group): Control (C) - saline (5 ml/kg/21 days), Stress (S) - restraint stress (6hrs/day/21 days), and Test (S + VCO) (6 hrs/day+5 ml/kg VCO for 21 days). The behavioral (Radial arm maze (RAM)) and biochemical (corticosterone (CORT)), reduced glutathione (GSH), and malonaldehyde (MDA) parameters were analyzed to determine the neuroprotective effect of VCO.
Results:
The VCO-treated group has shown a significant increase in the percentage of correct choice entries and a reduction in error entries, highlighting an improvement in working and reference memory. Moreover, there was a substantial elevation in GSH, and a reduction in MDA and CORT levels, indicating a potent antioxidant activity of VCO. Additionally, significant body weight gain and reduced adrenal gland weight were noted in VCO-treated rats.
Conclusions:
Our findings signify that VCO has therapeutic potential to improve spatial learning memory and antioxidant status in chronic restraint stress rats.Schematic depiction of the protective effect of virgin coconut oil on chronic restraint stress rats.
