The Influence of Serotonin in Plantain Diet on Fear and Anxiety Behavior in Mice: Implications for Dietary impact on Emotion

The objective of this book chapter is to report the outcome of investigating the mechanism of effect of consuming plantain diet on fear and anxiety behavior, using mice in experiment model. Two categories (cat) of three groups of mice were administered as follows; cat 1 - normal chow (group A/control), 50% plantain (group B), 100% plantain (group C) and cat 2 - normal chow (group 1), 100% plantain (group 2), 100% plantain + serotonin antagonist –ritanserin (group 3) respectively for a period of 30 days. Thereafter, both categories of mice were subjected to neurobehavioral studies using elevated plus maze and light/dark box, after which they were sacrificed and portion of brain tissue were collected and homogenized for estimation of serotonin (5-HT) concentration using High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Variability among the groups was determined by analysis of variance (ANOVA), whereas between groups, appropriate comparisons were made by Student t-test. Result of neurobehavioral analysis showed a significant increase in open arm duration and time spent in light chamber for plantain-fed mice than control; implying that plantain reduced anxiety and fear behavior for cat 1. The neurochemical analysis for cat 1 showed that 5-HT level was significantly (p<0.001) elevated in the brain of plantain-diet fed mice than control (group A), indicating that plantain increased 5-HT concentration. In the cat 2, duration in open arm and in light camber was reduced significantly p<0.05 in group 3 (100% plantain + ritanserin) than control and 100% plantain group; implying increased fear and anxiety behavior. These results suggest that plantain meal may have influenced emotion by reducing fear and anxiety, with 5-HT as an active ingredient in plantain.