| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立中興大學 === 食品暨應用生物科技學系所 === 105 === Litsea cubeba Persoon is a traditional seasoning used by Taiwanese aborigines. There are some studies indicating that Litsea cubeba fruits essential oil and its methanol extract have functions in antioxidation, sedation, analgesic and improvement of the central nervous system disorders such as anxiety and depression. Senile dementia is a neurodegenerative disease caused by aging and excessive oxidative damage in body, and Alzheimer''s disease (AD) has highest prevalence rate which caused by Amyloid β protein (Aβ plaques accumulation and hyperphosphorylated tau protein (p-tau) to form neurofibrillary tangles (NFTS) deposit in hippocampus that induces memory loss and cognitive impairment. Thus, the major aim of the study is to evaluate the volatile compounds of Litsea Cubeba fruit essential oils, and ameliorate effect of its powder (LCP) on memory and learning ability improvement in Aβ-induced alzheimer''s mice. The results show that litsea cubeba fruits growing in high altitude, low latitude and fruit with greener color have lower essential oil content compared to others condition. Besides, the GC / MS analyses give the result that the essential oils are mainly composed of terpenoids. The total contents of limonene, neral and geranial in essential oil from Nantou areas are richer than Kaohsiung areas that cause the lemon and citrus smell are much stronger in Natou area’s essential oils. Using principal components analysis (PCA) to distinguish the composition of Litsea cubeba fruit essential oils from different areas, and the composition of essential oils growing in same area is similar to the one locating in the same region on score scatter plot of the first and the second principal components. The results of Aβ induced Alzheimer’s mice model show that mice fed with high dosage of LCP can significantly decrease the content of LDL-C and increase HDL-C/LDL-C ratio which has hypolipidemic effect. Moreover, compared with Aβ group, the group fed with all dosages of LCP can effectively improve the memory and learning ability impairment, decrease the atrophy velocity of brain and significantly decrease the amount of malondialdehyde, protein carbonyl, phosphorylated τ-protein and deposition of Aβ plaques in brain.
In summary, Litsea cubeba Persoon fruit has potential to be functional food to prevent the increase of oxidative stress induced by Aβ then ameliorates memory and learning ability.
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