An examination of the consequences of chronic exposure to Mitragyna speciosa during adolescence on learning and memory in adulthood

Journal Title: The Journal of Phytopharmacology - Year 2014, Vol 3, Issue 4

Abstract

Although an emerging drug of concern in the United States and Europe, the active alkaloids associated the Mitragyna speciosa plant have long been utilized for a number of purposes ranging from use as an antitussive to that of anti-inflammatory or analgesic purposes. Known by a number of common names, in the United States it is normally legally sold as Kratom. However, little is known about the consequences of the main constituent, mitragynine or any of the more than two dozen identified plant alkaloids on neuropsychological development, learning and memory, and behavior. In the present experiment, adolescent rats were given repeated injections of saline, 15 mg/kg, or 50 mg/kg of Mitragyna speciosa extract. Once the animals reached 107 days of age, they were assessed for general activity, retention on a step-down passive avoidance task, trained using tasks with spatial components of various levels of difficulty, a spatial learning set task, and a plus maze response learning task. In some but not all of the Morris water maze tasks, escape latencies for the 50 mg/kg but not 15 mg/kg rats were significantly longer than that of saline control animals. Nonetheless, performance across groups on probe trials was comparable. In addition, during learning set testing the escape times for the three groups were comparable and, more important, they were able to respond on trial two on the basis of what they learned on the first trial by the end of training. For plus maze response learning testing, all three groups made a comparable number of reference memory errors. Conversely, the 50 mg/kg drug group made significantly more total and working memory errors than the saline-treated animals. The results suggest that chronic exposure to the alkaloids present in legally available Kratom during adolescence is capable of producing a variety of subtle but lasting changes affecting spatial and working memory performance in adulthood, well after the exposure to Kratom has ended.

Authors and Affiliations

David M. Compton, Corina Garcia, Annamaria V. Kamaratos, Brittany G. Johnson, Tegan Wedge

Keywords

Related Articles

Evaluation of anticancer property of mango peel and flesh after formalin treatment

Cancer is life threatening disease an d the second leading cause of death. Various phenolic compounds obtained from plant sources such as fruit, bark, leaf and roots acts against cancer but when such fruits are treated...

Suppression of nociception by Solanum incanum (Lin.) Diclomethane root extract is associated antiinflammatory activity

Solanum incanum is an herb that is an important African folklore remedy for several ailments such as inflammation, pain, fever, microbial diseases, and neoplastic disorders. The herb possesses several pharmacological a...

Phytopharmacology of Indian plant Sesbania grandiflora L.

Sesbania grandiflora L. is an Indian medicinal plant which belongs to family Leguminosae. It is cultivated in south or west India in the ganga valley and in Bengal. The plant contains rich in tanins, flavonoides, couma...

Comparison of antiaspergillar activity of extracts of Tectona grandis Linn according to two antifungal susceptibility testing

Plants used as antimicrobials in the treatment of infectious diseases in folk medicine are regularly evaluated in different Laboratories. And, the processes of evaluation of antifungal susceptibility are often different...

Anti-diabetic effects of stem bark extract and fractions of Terminalia catappa Linn. (Combretaceae)

The pharmacognostic, toxicity and anti-diabetic profiles of stem bark of Terminalia catappa were evaluated. The plant material was subjected to macroscopy, microscopy and proximate analyses using standard methods. The...

Download PDF file
  • EP ID EP49577
  • DOI -
  • Views 211
  • Downloads 0

How To Cite

David M. Compton, Corina Garcia, Annamaria V. Kamaratos, Brittany G. Johnson, Tegan Wedge (2014). An examination of the consequences of chronic exposure to Mitragyna speciosa during adolescence on learning and memory in adulthood. The Journal of Phytopharmacology, 3(4), -. https://europub.co.uk/articles/-A-49577