Introduction and Objective: Due to the presence of some evidence for anti-diabetic and antioxidant activity of Cynara scolymus (CS), this research study was conducted to evaluate the effect of CS on learning and memory in diabetic rats.
Materials and Methods: Rats were divided into control, CS-treated control, diabetic, and CS treateddiabetic groups. Treatment groups received rat chow containing CS for 6 weeks. For induction of diabetes, streptozotocin was injected. For evaluation of learning and memory, initial (IL) and step-through latencies (STL) were determined at the end of study using passive avoidance test and alternation behavior percentage was obtained using Y maze.
Results: STL significantly decreased in diabetic (p<0.01) and CS-treated control (p<0.05) groups and non-significantly reduced in treated-diabetic group and the existing difference between diabetic and treated-diabetic groups was statistically significant ((p<0.05). In addition, although alternation percentage was significantly lower in diabetic and treated-diabetic groups relative to control (p<0.01 and p<0.05), but it was non-significantly higher in treated-diabetic group relative to diabetics.
Conclusion: CS treatment could enhance the capability of consolidation and recall in diabetic animals and could not improve spatial memory in diabetic animals using Y maze.