Data: The effects of Arabian jasmine on zebrafish behavior depends on strain, sex, and personality

Jasminum sambac (L.) Aiton, commonly known as Arabian jasmine, is widely used in Thai traditional medicine for mental health ailments. However, studies in humans and animals have yielded mixed results on the effects of J. sambac on anxiety-related behaviors with some studies finding it to be anxiolytic, and others, paradoxically, finding it to be anxiogenic. Using adult zebrafish, we sought to determine whether factors like strain, sex, and personality might contribute to the variable effects of J. sambac on anxiety-related behavior. The flowers of J. sambac were extracted by ultrasonic-assisted extraction with optimal air pressure. Headspace solid-phase microextraction with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (HS-SPME-GC-MS) identified the main components in the Arabian jasmine flower extract, including linalool (an anxiolytic compound) and benzaldehyde (an anxiogenic compound). We fed three strains of zebrafish (AB, TL, and WIK) a gelatin pellet containing different concentrations of J. sambac (5-20 mg kg-1) and assessed 3-dimensional swim behavior in the novel tank and mirror biting tests. We found that in female AB fish, J. sambac resulted in a decrease in both bottom distance and percent explored during the novel tank test, consistent with an anxiogenic effect; there was no effect in WIK or TL fish. We also found that behavioral/personality type influenced the effect of J. sambac during a second exposure to the novel tank where shy AB females increased their percent explored and low activity males to increase their bottom distance, consistent with anxiolytic effects. Thus, we find that sex, genetics, and personality interact to influence the anxiety-related effects of Arabian jasmine, which may contribute to the opposing effects previously reported in the literature.Files and DescriptionS1 Data_GC-MS profiling of Arabian jasmine water extract.csvThis file contains all the data underlying Fig. 1C. It includes GC-MS data of Arabian jasmine extractsS2 Data_Novel tank test results of zebrafish based on strain.csvThis file contains all the data underlying Figs 2A and 2C.S3 Data_Mirror biting test results of zebrafish based on strain.csvThis file contains all the data underlying Figs 2B and 2D.S4 Data_Personality analysis of AB zebrafish.csvThis file contains all the data underlying Fig 3.S5 Data_Novel tank test results of AB zebrafish based on personality.csvThis file contains all the data underlying Figs 4 and 5.S6 Data_Mirror biting test results of AB zebrafish based on personality.csvThis file contains all the data underlying S1 Fig.