Effect of morus nigra l. leaves infusion on depression in captive mice

It is common for captive animal that live under human care to develop depression due to different in habitat, enclosure and climate from their origin. Mulberry is from Moraceae family which widely used in reducing fever and as hypoglycaemic agent. Currently, there is no research been conducted to investigate the effect of Marus Nigra (mulberry) to reduce symptom of depression in these animal. Hence, the aim of this study is to investigate possible antidepressant-like effect of mulberry leave infusion into mice. The mice were divided into two groups which are control group (n=6) given distilled water and mulberry group (n=6) given mulberry tea infusion 2.5% concentration. Body weight, water intake and food consumption of the mice were recorded throughout 14 days of experiment. Forced swim test was conducted on day 7 and day 14 to measure the potential antidepressant activity of mulberry tea. Result showed that there were no significant difference (p>0.05) in body weight, water intake and food consumption of the mice. In forced swim test, there were no significant effect (p>0.05) of mulberry tea infusion in reducing immobility time and increasing the latency to start immobile. These result suggested that mulberry tea infusion has no effect towards captive mice. However, there were limitations which contribute to the result of the study which were discussed in this research.