Effect of Curcumin on Blood Glucose Level and Some Neurobehavioral Responses in Alloxan-induced Diabetic Swiss Albino Mice

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of curcumin on blood glucose level and neurobehavioral response in Alloxan-induced diabetic Swiss Albino mice. The animals were divided into five (5) groups of four each (n=4). Group I served as control and received distilled water, group II, III, IV and V were diabetic and received olive oil 1 ml/kg, glibenclamide 1 mg/kg, curcumin 50 mg/kg and curcumin 100 mg/kg respectively. Diabetes was induced using Alloxan (150 mg/kg). All administrations were done for duration of 21 days. Blood glucose level was determined using glucose oxidase principle and cognitive impairment was determined using novel object recognition task (NORT). The result obtained from this study showed that curcumin at both doses (50 mg/kg and 100 mg/kg) significantly (p < 0.05) reduced the fasting blood glucose level and recorded an improvement in memory, recognitive and discriminatory indices when compared with the diabetic  control group. This study demonstrated that curcumin significantly (p < 0.05) attenuated diabetes-induced cognitive impairment in the NORT. The findings of this study suggest that curcumin may ameliorate diabetes-induced cognitive impairment in Swiss albino mice.