The Effects of ‘Serenifly’ Oil Blend on Heat Shock-Induced Anxiety in Drosophila melanogaster

Abstract

Our research examined the potential beneficial properties of aromatherapy, which is marketed as a natural way to manage stress, anxiety, and in some cases more extreme health issues. Additionally, aromatherapy and essential oils have gained attention due to their ability to have easily adjustable dosages as well as the ease of making different blends to achieve specific health goals. This study investigated the effects of ‘Serenifly’ oil blend, which included lavender, orange, and neroli oil, on anxiety reduction in the model organism, Drosophila melanogaster. We hypothesized that D. melanogaster introduced to the essential oil blend would be better suited to overcome stress and anxiety that was induced by high heat exposure for a prolonged period of time. To evaluate this hypothesis, we established three experimental groups: a control group, a heat shock–induced stress group, and a stress group treated with the ‘Serenifly’ oil blend. We assessed the three experimental groups using a Rapid Iterative Negative Geotaxis (RING) assay, which measured climbing behavior, a wall-following assay, which measured their likeliness to show centrophobism, and a visual memory assay to measure learned avoidance. Our results indicate that the heat shock treatment did not effectively induce stress in the D. melanogaster, thereby making it unclear as to whether the ‘Serenifly’ oil blend had any impact on stress and anxiety reduction.