Germinated Sang-Yod Rice Improves Learning Ability and Memory of Obese Mice

doi.org/10.26538/tjnpr/v5i2.5

Abstract

Obesity is prevalent worldwide. This might be a driving force for development of weight control recipes. In this study, effects of germinated Sang-Yod rice as food supplement on the learning ability and memory of obese mice were investigated according to Episodic-like memory task. Three groups of male C57/BL/6J mice (n = 6) were independently fed with a diet for 12 weeks as follows: CONTROL (a group of mice fed with normal diet); HFD (a group of mice fed with a high-fat diet); and HFD-GR (a group of mice fed with a high fat diet plus 1% germinated Sang-Yod rice/kg/day). The feed intake amount was recorded daily. Experiments involving the behavioral task started on the 10th week. All mice showed increased body weight over time. The body weight changes among the animal groups were not significant and the changes were not proportional to the amount of fat consumed. In comparison with HFD mice, those of CONTROL and HFD-GR groups were well in recognition of the previously explored objects and proficient in remembering the previous locations of objects and discriminating the existence of objects at different time points. Germinated Sang-Yod rice might be beneficial to obese people, if consumed daily as a supplement, by improving memory and learning ability.