Abstract

Background: Moderate heat stress (HS) has been proven to cause significant behavioral changes in rats. Curcumin (CM) has been reported in various studies to reverse behavioral changes caused by various toxic agents such as lipopolysaccharide, oxaliplatin-cisplatin, and cadmium.Objectives: The aim of this study was to assess the efficacy of CM in reversing the behavioral changes induced by HS in male albino rats.
Materials and Methods: CM (0.5 g/kg and 2.0 g/kg) was administered as oral suspension to male albino rats of Wistar strain for 5 consecutive days along with HS at 37 ± 0.5°C in a biological oxygen demand incubator (relative humidity 65–82%). Observations of behavioral changes were done during and after HS in control and experimental animals.
Results: Depressive behavioral changes were noted in HS control animals. During HS, CM 0.5 animals showed excessive running while in CM 2.0 animals, running became moderate. After HS, observations showed that there is reversal of behavioral changes to a minimal level in CM 0.5 and to a moderate to normal level in CM 2.0 animals.Conclusion: The result of this study revealed that CM was effective in causing reversal of HS-induced depressive behavioral changes in rats but in a dose-dependent fashion.