Pimpinella anisum essentiel oil enhances spatial learning performance of rats exposed to Hgcl2 during the developmental period

Abstract

The essential oil of Pimpinella anisum has been widely used in traditional medicine to treat a variety of diseases. This study was aimed to test, in vivo, effect of exposition to mercury chloride (100mg/L) in wistar rats during the gestation and lactation period. On the other hand, treatment of pups with essential oil of P. anisum (0.25 ml/kg) for 21 days. The behavioural patterms evaluated was spatial memory ( Morris water maze) and the determination of mercury concentration in blood and brain. The data were analysed by two way analyses of variance (ANOVAs). When a significant difference was found, the Student Newman Keuls post hoc test was conducted. The results of the present study demonstrated that exposure to mercury in developmental period induced, significantly decrease of the learning performance (p < 0.01; p < 0.05) compared to control rats. Thus, the concentration of mercury in the intoxicated group is high in the blood and brain. However, the administration of P. anisum essential oil resulted into an improvement of learning perfor-mance (p< 0.01; p< 0.05) and reduction of mercury blood and brain mercury. In conclusion, our results demonstrate that mercury exposure during the developmental period induces learning disabilities and remains trapped in blood and brain. This could be improved by the treatment with Pimpinella anisum essential oil.