Maibindiga et al., JOBASFUD_2024_3_1_006
Keywords: Nigella sativa, Prefrontal cortex, alcohol, short term memory.
2024-07-09 DOI: JOBASFUD_2024_3_1_006
Background and Objective: Alcohol is the sixth leading risk factor contributing to most deaths and other related diseases. This study aims at investigating the ameliorative potentials of black seed oil on short-term memory impairments and histological changes on ethanol treated rats. Methods: Twenty-five Wistar rats with an average weight of 157g were randomly grouped into five groups of five rats each, after two weeks of acclimatization. Animals in group I served as the control and were administered with distilled water, group II, III, IV and V were administered with 2.8ml/kg of black seed oil, 1.4ml/kg of ethanol, 1.4ml/kg of ethanol and 1.4ml/kg of black seed oil, 1.4ml/kg of ethanol and 2.8ml/kg of black cumin oil respectively orally, for three weeks. A short term memory was assessed using novel object recognition test. The rats were humanly sacrificed and the brains were removed and fixed in formal saline before being processed using routine histological techniques. Tissues were stained with hematoxylin and eosin stain for histological studies. One-way analysis of variance was used to compare the mean value using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS version, 21), and the data were presented as mean ± standard deviation. Result: The result indicates that there is a slight improvement of memory in the group administered with 1.4 mg/kwt of ethanol and black seed oil. There is no significant alternation of memory in the control group and the group administered with 1.4 mg/kg bwt of ethanol. The group administered with 1.4 mg/kg bwt of ethanol and 2.8 mg/kg bwt of black cumin oil shows a significant difference in impairment in short term memory. The ameliorative effects of black seed oil was observed on the histomorphology of the prefrontal cortex due to a higher number of pyramidal cells, granular cells, reduction in pyknotic cells and vaculations. Conclusion: It was concluded from the present study that black seed oil reduces the toxic effects of ethanol on the prefrontal cortex of adult Wistar rats.