Effects of Consumption of Cooked Beans (Phaseolus vulgaris) as well as Serotonin Precursor Diets on Scopolamine-impaired Memory in Mice

Background and Objective: Alzheimer’s disease (memory impairment) is on the increase worldwide. It has never been established if eating beans plus tryptophan, a serotonin precursor, may help people with memory loss. Thus, the purpose of this study was to examine how scopolamine-impaired learning and memory in mice were affected by the consumption of cooked beans (Phaseolus vulgaris) and diets high in serotonin precursors.

Methods and Study Design: Using random assignment, 60 mice were divided into 6 groups (10 mice each); Control, Scopolamine only, Scopolamine with 50% cooked bean diet, Scopolamine with serotonin precursor diet, 50% cooked bean diet only, and serotonin precursor diet only. Prior to studying the learning and memory pattern, initial research was conducted on food and water intake as well as changes in body weight. Learning and memory patterns were investigated using novel object recognition tests and Morris water mazes.

Results: The results showed that preliminary studies on food and water consumption, together with variations in body weight, were significantly lower (p<0.05) in the group that received just scopolamine treatment as opposed to the control and other experimental groups. In contrast to the control and other test groups, the scopolamine-only group showed slowed learning (p<0.05). In addition, the scopolamine-only group had worse memory than any other experimental group (p<0.05).

Conclusion: Mice’s learning and memory were enhanced by bean and serotonin precursor diets, while mice’s memory was hampered by scopolamine. The serotonin produced from tryptophan in beans may be responsible for the observed improvement in memory.

Keywords: Phaseolus Vulgaris.Scopolamine, Alzheimer’s Disease, Tryptophan, Beans.