Effect of Astragalus membranaceus Oral Solution on Lifespan and Learning and Memory Ability of Honey Bees

Abstract

In this study, the effects of Astragalus membranaceus oral solution on lifespan and learning and memory abilities of honey bees were evaluated. Two groups of bees were fed with sucrose syrup (50%) containing low dose (1.33%) and high dose (13.3%) of A. membranaceus oral solution, respectively. The proboscis extension response (PER) analysis was applied to examine the learning and memory capabilities of bees. Two genes related to memory formation in honey bees were determined by real-time PCR. High dose (13.3%) of A. membranaceus significantly decreased the mean lifespan of bees compared to the bees fed with low dose (1.33%) and control bees. No significant differences in lifespan of bees were found between low-dose-fed bees and control bees. The results of PER experiments showed apparent improvement in the memorizing ability of the high-dose group (in comparison with the control group). Moreover, the relative expression levels of Nmdar1 in the low-dose group and control group were significantly lower than those in the high-dose group. It is preliminarily concluded that A. membranaceus has an adverse effect on the mean lifespan of honey bees but might be helpful in strengthening memories.

Transcriptome Analysis of gene in Mouse M-1 cells revealing the functional mechanism of Astragali radix extract

“…Mutations in GPIbβ caused GPIb-IX-V defects [33]. Some experiments have found that high concentrations of AR can shorten the lifespan of bees and also have an inhibitory effect on the growth of cancer cells [34,35]. It was obvious that high concentrations of drugs had adverse effects on cells and may promote the occurrence of diseases.…”

The Subchronic Toxic Effects of Mosla chinensis Maxim in Normal Rats

“…The mammalian 90-day toxicity test is an important experiment for safety evaluation, and the traditional 90-day feeding test has relatively few end points and narrow coverage. Nowadays, some toxicologists have begun to explore the use of invertebrates as an alternative to mammals for long-term studies [ 19 ]. We added intestinal microbial diversity detection and urine mass spectrometry to the traditional 90-day feeding test analysis in order to obtain more comprehensive data for safety evaluation of subjects.…”