Authors:
Maifitrianti
;
Hadi Sunaryo
and
Dedi Suryadi
Affiliation:
Universitas Muhammadiyah , Indonesia
Keyword(s):
Watermelon, Lycopene, Dementia, Spatial Memory
Abstract:
Watermelon (Citrullus lanatus Thunb.) is one of the fruits that containing lycopene. Lycopene is able to reduce oxidative damage that causes dementia. This research was aimed to determine the activity of steamed watermelon juice in improving the spatial memory in dementia rats model induced by Electroconvulsive Shock (ECS). The animal test was divided into 6 groups, namely normal control group, negative control group, positive control group (vitamin E, 20.7 mg/kg BW), and 3 treatment groups that received steamed watermelon juice with different dose, i.e 0.92 g/kg BW,1.85 g/kg BW, and 3.7 g/kg BW. All groups were induced with ECS, except for the normal control group. The spatial memory was measured with the Radial Arm Maze (RAM) test and the observed results were analyzed with ANOVA and a post-hoc Tukey’s HSD test. The ANOVA test results showed significant differences between all treatment groups. Meanwhile, the posthoc Tukey’s HSD test at 95% confidence level resulted in a significan
t difference between the the treatment groups with the doses of 0.92 g/kg BW and 1.85 g/kg BW and the negative control group. However, this test indicated an insignificant difference between the positive control group and the normal control group. This finding confirms that the administration of steamed watermelon juice at doses of 0.92 g/kg BW and 1.85 g/kg BW improves the spatial memory in a rat mode of dementia comparable to the positive control. The treatment groups receiving these two doses showed corresponding results, meaning that both doses of steamed watermelon juice have an equivalent spatial memory enhancement activity.
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