eng Science and Education Publishing Journal of Food and Nutrition Research 2333-1240 2023-03-17 11 3 211 222 10.12691/jfnr-11-3-6 JFNR20231136 article Isidro Vargas-Moreno 1 Juan-Francisco Rodr¨ªguez-Landa 2 H¨¦ctor-Gabriel Acosta-Mesa 3 Rafael Fern¨¢ndez-Demeneghi 3 Rosamaria Oliart-Ros 4 Daniel Hern¨¢ndez Baltazar 5 Socorro Herrera-Meza soherrera@uv.mx 6 Institute of Neuroethology (doctoral program in neuroethology), University of Veracruz, Xalapa, Mexico Institute of Neuroethology, University of Veracruz, Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico Artificial Intelligence Research Institute, University of Veracruz, Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico National Technological Institute of Mexico, Food Research and Development Unit, Veracruz, Veracruz, Mexico CONACyT-Institute of Neuroethology, University of Veracruz, Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico Institute of Psychological Research, University of Veracruz, Xalapa, Veracruz Mexico The present study evaluated anxiety-like behavior and neuronal changes in the CA1, CA3, and dentate gyrus subregions of the hippocampus that were induced by chronic sterculic oil administration in Wistar rats. The study included two experiments. The first experiment evaluated doses-response curves of sterculic oil (low dose, 0.06 g; medium dose, 0.12 g; high dose, 0.24 g). The second experiment evaluated the effects of sterculic oil on the number of adult hippocampal neurons. For all experiments, we employed a behavioral test battery that included the elevated plus maze, locomotor activity test, and forced swim test. All sterculic oil doses produced anxiogenic-like effects, without significant changes in locomotor activity or behavior in the forced swim test. We observed a reduction of neurons in the hippocampus in rat groups that were exposed to behavioral tests compared with a test-free vehicle group. Sterculia apetala seed oil administration produced anxiogenic-like effects, with a smaller effect of the medium dose on neurons in the CA1 and dentate gyrus regions of the hippocampus. http://pubs.sciepub.com/jfnr/11/3/6/jfnr-11-3-6.pdf anxiety behavior hippocampus neurons Sterculia apetala