Fig. 1.

Oral administration of tomato (TEE) and lemon ethanolic extract (LEE) synergistically improved age-related memory impairments in aged mice. (a) Twelve-month-old and eight-week-old mice were orally administered the extracts or vehicle, respectively, 5 d a week for 9 weeks. (b) After 8 weeks of oral administration, the novel object recognition (NOR) test was performed. After oral administration of TEE, LEE and their mixture to aged mice, their preferences for exploring new objects were identified using the NOR test (young + vehicle, n 7 mice; aged + vehicle, n 9 mice; aged + TEE, n 7 mice; aged + LEE, n 8 mice; aged + TEE and LEE, n 10). The discrimination index was calculated as the difference between the exploration time for the novel object (N) and that of the familiar object (F) divided by the total time spent exploring both objects (discrimination index = (N − F)/(N + F)). (c) Changes in mouse weight during the study period. Each bar represents the mean ± se for each group. Statistical significance was determined by Kruskal–Wallis H test followed by post hoc Dunn’s test. *P < 0·05 v. young vehicle group. ^# P < 0·05 v. the aged vehicle group.