Nootropic and An-anxiety Effects of Olive Oil: Relaonship with Dopamine and Serotonin Metabolism Atif Raza Cheema M 1,2* , Khalid Mahmood 2 and Darakhshan J Haleem 2 1 Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceucal Sciences, Department of Pharmacology, University of Karachi, Karachi, Pakistan 2 Neuroscience Research Laboratory, Dr. Panjwani Center for Molecular Medicine and Drug Research, Internaonal Center for Chemical and Biological Sciences, University of Karachi, Karachi, Pakistan * Corresponding author: Af Raza Cheema M, Neuroscience Research Laboratory (P-102), Dr. Panjwani Center for Molecular Medicine and Drug Research (PCMD), Internaonal Center for Chemical and Biological Sciences (ICCBS), University of Karachi, Karachi-75270, Pakistan, Tel: 922199261300-07; E-mail: afpharmacist3@iccs.edu Received: January 24, 2018; Accepted: April 18, 2018; Published: April 26, 2018 Citaon: Cheema MAR, Mahmood K, Haleem DJ (2018) Nootropic and An-anxiety Effects of Olive Oil: Relaonship with Dopamine and Serotonin Metabolism. J Nutraceucals Food Sci Vol.3:No.1:4. Abstract In recent years, interest in the use of nutraceucals has risen substanally. Olive oil has been shown to produce a number of therapeucally important effects due to its anoxidant property. The present study concerns neurochemical and behavioral effects of long term administraon of low and high doses (0.1 mL/kg and 0.25 mL/kg) of olive oil and associated anoxidant effects in rats. Long term administraon of low dose of olive oil increased motor acvity in an open field, decreased anxiety in elevated plus maze test, and enhanced memory in Morris water maze test. Whole brain levels of serotonin increased with low dose of olive oil while homovanillic acid (HVA), a metabolite of dopamine increased with both doses of olive oil. Low dose of olive oil increased glutathione peroxidase acvity whereas high dose of olive oil decreased malondialdehyde levels in plasma. The results show that parcularly low doses of olive oil reduce anxiety and improve learning and memory together with anoxidant properes, brain dopamine and serotonin also play important role in the therapeucally important effects of olive oil. Keywords: Olive oil; Anxiety; Memory; Dopamine; Serotonin Introducon In recent years, interest in the use of nutraceucals has risen substanally, largely because of their efficacy, fewer side effects, and cost efficiency. There is growing need of nootropic agents because the currently available cognive-enhancing drugs (psychosmulants) have unwanted side effects such as psychoc symptoms and abuse potenal [1]. Remission rate and treatments for psychiatric illnesses such as depression and anxiety are also not sasfactory [2]. The fruit of Olea europaea L. (Family: Oleaceae) is commonly known as olive. It is a major component of the Mediterranean diet. In the last few decades, global consumpon of olive oil has increased due to increased awareness of its health benefits [3,4]. Olive oil has been used in tradional medicine due to its anhypertensive and cardio-protecve effects. It also has an- inflammatory, analgesic, and ancancer effects [5]. However, effects of this oil on monoamine metabolism have not been widely invesgated [6]. Despite a number of beneficial effects only few studies have been performed on the effects of olive oil on anxiety and cognion [6,7]. It has also been reported that 4 weeks administraon of olive oil at dose of 0.25 mL/kg produces andepressant and ananxiety effects and this was associated with a decrease in brain serotonin [5-hydroxytryptamine (5- HT)] and dopamine (DA) metabolism [6]. In the present study, potenal ananxiety effects of low and high doses of olive oil were determined aſter one and five weeks of administraon. The an-anxiety effect was produced aſter 5 weeks but not one week of oil administraon. Animals were later tested on water maze for learning acquision and memory retenon. The animals were killed to collect brain and plasma samples for determining 5-HT and DA metabolism in the whole brain and malondialdehyde (MDA) and glutathione peroxidase (GSH-PX) acvity in the plasma. Food intake and change in body weight during 5 weeks treatment were also monitored. Materials and Methods Experimental animals Locally bred male albino Wistar rats, weighing 180-230 g (age approximately 7 weeks) were obtained from Animal Resource Facility of Dr. Panjwani Center for Molecular Research Article iMedPub Journals www.imedpub.com Journal of Nutraceuticals and Food Science Vol.3 No.1:4 2018 © Copyright iMedPub | This article is available from: http://nutraceuticals.imedpub.com/ 1