to have health benefits that could enhance the antioxidant status in
vivo [38]. Therefore, the blackcurrant-treated group is used as a
positive control to verify the biological and physiological efficacy of
anthocyanin-rich fruit in this study.
Six-month-old adult mice from SAMR1 and SAMP8 strains were
randomly divided into five experimental groups. Table 1 demonstrates that there were no significant (PN.05) differences in body
weight between the mice in the experimental groups at the
beginning of the study. Three months later, the body weights
continued to increase in the SAMR1 group but remained constant
in the SAMP8 group. Given these data, it appears that ageing might
influence activity levels and appetite. Furthermore, data from
learning and memory tests showed that SAMP8 mice (Group II)
had inferior cognitive ability compared to SAMR1 mice (Group I)
(Figs. 1 and 2). Additionally, the passive avoidance times for Group II
were significantly less than those for Group I, and the successful
avoidance times for Group II were also lower than those for Group I.
However, when consistently fed with mulberry or BE, the memory
deterioration observed in the SAMP8 mice was greatly improved.
These data suggested that consumption of mulberry could improve
the learning and cognition capacities of mice in the setting of agerelated dementia