Honors Theses
Date of Award
2016
Document Type
Undergraduate Thesis
Department
Psychology
First Advisor
Ken Sufka
Relational Format
Dissertation/Thesis
Abstract
Sceletium tortuosum (S. tortuosum), known colloquially as Kanna, is a natural botanical that is thought to reduce anxiety, elevate mood, and produce euphoria. This study explores S. tortuosum's properties in the chick anxiety-depression model, a pre-clinical drug efficacy screening model that shares many features to clinical stress-related disorders and has high predictive validity. Socially-raised male Silver Laced Wyandotte chicks age 4-6 days were given intraperitoneal injections of either a vehicle, imipramine, or S. tortuosum fraction (10, 20, 30, 50, 75, or 100mg/kg) 15 minutes prior to being placed in a stress-inducing isolation chamber for 60 minutes and distress vocalizations were recorded. Chick distress vocalizations were quantified during anxiety (first 3 minutes) and depression-like phases (30-60 minutes, relatively). The results show that vehicle-treated chicks had an initially high DVoc rate, followed by a decline and plateau of approximately 50%; this follows the typical pattern of anxiety, followed by behavioral despair that the Chick Model of Anxiety and Depression simulates. 75 and 100 mg/kg of S. tortuosum decreased DVoc rates during the anxiety phase, which is indicative of anxiolytic activity. Imipramine groups increased DVoc rates in the depression phase, which is indicative of antidepressant activity; no antidepressant effect was found in S. tortuosum. These findings display the potential of S. tortuosum to have stress-relieving properties that may alleviate anxiety-like symptoms.
Recommended Citation
Fountain, Emily Mae, "The Effects of Sceletium tortuosum in the Chick Anxiety-Depression Model" (2016). Honors Theses. 302.
https://egrove.olemiss.edu/hon_thesis/302
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