Avaliação dos efeitos do noni (Morinda citrifolia) sobre o comportamento de ratos Wistar.

Abstract

The fruit of Morinda citrifolia Linn, popularly known as noni has been widely used because of the variety of health effects and their nutritional benefits, as it has therapeutic properties related to antioxidant, analgesic, anti-inflammatory, hypoglycemic, among others . The studies about the safety and toxicity of noni are scarce, especially with emphasis on the effect of noni on the central nervous system and anxiety levels. In view of this, this study aimed to evaluate the effects of noni supplementation in adult Wistar rats in behavioral parameters. Were used 16 animals that were divided into two groups: control group (n = 8) received distilled water and noni group (n = 8) received the aqueous extract of noni, at a dose of 75 mg / kg, both by oral gavage using the procedure for 15 days. To evaluate the effect of noni on the anxiety of the animals, were performed the Open Field Test and the Elevated Cross Maze. The results were statistically analyzed using t-Student test and being applied in Graph Pad Prism program, being considered significant when presented p <0.05. In the Open Field Test, among the evaluated parameters, the noni group had a higher number of ambulation (<0.05), and shorter time of grooming (<0.05) compared to the control group, the parameters of rearing and dung did not showed a statistically significant difference. Regarding the Elevated Cross Maze Test, the noni group decreased the number of entries in the closed arms (<0.05), remaining longer in them (<0.01), compared to control; also there was a decrease in length of stay in the central area (<0.05). The number of head dips, number of entries and length of time in the open arms were not significant. Therefore, these results demonstrate that supplementation of noni extract showed an anxiolytic effect positively influencing the levels of anxiety and exploratory activity.