Avaliação comportamental de filhotes de ratas Wistar tratadas com noni durante a gestação e lactação.

Abstract

Noni is a result of the M. citrifolia which has been widely studied and fed to consist of many nutritional characteristics and pharmacological effects, such as anxiolytic and anti-inflammatory effect. However, some studies showed a toxicity of this fruit in the reproductive phase. Thus, the aim of this study was to analyze the noni supplementation in female Wistar rats during pregnancy and lactation phase in order to investigate the behavioral effects and the developing nervous system of the offspring. The animals were divided into two groups, control and noni, with 8 male offspring in each group. The product was collected, washed and discarded seeds for subsequent lyophilization, and dissolved in distilled water to obtain an aqueous extract at a dose of 75 mg/kg, dose selection based on therapeutic dose for humans is 7.143 mg/kg /day. To investigate the possible effect of the consumption of this product in pregnancy and lactation phase were carried Physical Development Indicators tests and Reflection, following maturation in motor development and somatic animal; and Object Recognition test to evaluate the declarative memory and the short term animals. There was no occurrence of dead animals born. The data of all parameters examined in the reflexive and somatic maturation ontogeny only resulted in a delay in the development of Geotaxia Negative, reflecting parameter for puppies supplemented with noni compared to the control group. In the short term memory, there was no statistical difference. In long-term memory, as much animals in the control group as noni, explored longer the new object in relation to family and animals of the noni group had further exploration (p <0.001). Based on these results, it is concluded that, although detected a delay in development of motor Geotaxia negative, the animals showed an increase in long-term memory, demonstrating that the M. citrifolia caused an improvement in the memory of animals. Thus the evidence in this study reported positive effects as its use for declarative memory of animals and the negative effect on reflection can not be appointed as signs of toxicity, as a single parameter among many others studied.