Kola Nut Extract May Ease Drug-Induced Memory Loss in Mice, Small Study Finds

TL;DR: In a small 2026 mouse study, mice got a memory-disrupting drug for 7 days, some along with a steroid that raises blood sugar. Mice also given kola nut extract, from a West African seed that contains caffeine, did better on maze memory tests and had healthier antioxidant and blood sugar readings than mice given the drugs alone; with 5 mice per group, these are early results.

Source: Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience (2026) | Adedayo et al.

Kola nuts are chewed across West Africa to stay alert, and they gave early cola drinks their name. Could they also protect memory?

A 2026 study in Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, led by physiologists at Federal University Wukari and Bowen University in Nigeria, tested an extract of the nuts in mice with drug-induced memory problems.

Researchers had a pairing seen in people in mind: heart and blood sugar problems often travel with memory decline.

6 Groups of 5 Mice, 7 Days of Treatment

Thirty young male mice were split into 6 groups of 5. For 7 days, they received:

• Healthy comparison mice: water only.
• Memory-drug mice: scopolamine, a drug that blocks a chemical messenger the brain needs to form memories.
• Memory-drug-plus-steroid mice: scopolamine plus dexamethasone, a steroid used here to raise blood sugar and strain the heart’s metabolism.
• Kola groups: each of those drug setups plus kola nut extract (50 mg per kg of body weight, by mouth).
• Donepezil group: scopolamine and dexamethasone plus donepezil, a standard Alzheimer’s drug, for comparison.

Afterward, mice took 2 classic memory tests, and researchers measured enzymes, sugar handling and signs of damage in their brains and hearts.

Did Kola Extract Help Mice Remember?

In the water maze, mice swim in a pool to find a platform hidden just under the surface, using clues around the room. Mice that remember where it is find it faster.

Both kola groups found the platform faster than the memory-drug mice and the memory-drug-plus-steroid mice. On a final test with the platform removed, they also spent more time swimming where it used to be.

In the Y-maze, a mouse explores a maze shaped like the letter Y. Mice with good short-term memory tend to visit a new arm each time instead of going back to one they just left.

Kola extract raised this rate in the memory-drug mice, but the paper reports no clear improvement for the kola group that also got the steroid.

Under the microscope, nerve cells in the hippocampus, the brain’s memory center, looked damaged in mice given the drugs alone. They looked normal with kola extract plus scopolamine, but damage remained in some regions when the steroid was also given.

Brain and Heart Chemistry Moved in a Healthier Direction

Scopolamine makes the brain ramp up an enzyme called acetylcholinesterase, which breaks down a memory messenger. Kola extract lowered it compared with drug-only mice, though levels stayed above those in healthy mice.

In both brain and heart, kola extract also:

• Restored glutathione, a natural antioxidant
• Lowered malondialdehyde, a marker of damage to cell fats
• Brought down lactate, a sign of strained energy use

Mice given the steroid handled a sugar drink worse than healthy mice; kola extract improved that.

Not everything recovered. Heart triglycerides stayed high, and heart nitric oxide, which helps blood vessels relax, stayed low, with kola extract or donepezil alike.

Caffeine and Other Reasons for Caution

• Tiny groups: 5 mice each, all young males.
• Caffeine: kola nuts are about 2% caffeine, and there was no caffeine-only group, so caffeine’s role is unknown.
• No kola-only group: the extract was never given to healthy mice for comparison.
• Unmeasured extract: its chemical makeup wasn’t analyzed; computer “docking” predictions of how its compounds bind brain proteins relied on compounds reported in earlier studies.
• Drug-induced memory loss: 7 days of scopolamine is a quick lab model, not Alzheimer’s or long-term heart disease.

Is It Kola, or the Caffeine in It?

This small study suggests kola nut extract can blunt drug-induced memory problems and some signs of cell stress in mice. It doesn’t show that chewing kola nuts or taking a supplement protects memory in people.

To show whether kola itself, and not just its caffeine, makes the difference, a follow-up would need a caffeine-only group, larger groups of both sexes, and a chemically measured extract.