Antioxidant potential of Drosera peltata in Dalton Ascites Lymphoma (DAL) bearing mice

Abstract

Cancer is one of the prominent causes of death reported by World Health Organization (WHO). The purpose of this study was to measure the antioxidant status of animals treated with 250 and 500 mg/kg doses of ethanol and aqueous extract of Drosera peltata on Dalton Ascites Lymphoma (DAL) inoculated mice. A total of 70 mice were divided into 7 groups, each group with ten mice. The first group (negative control) received normal food and water for 14 days and was kept under normal conditions. The second group also received normal food and water for 14 days, which was used as a cancer (positive) control. The third group received 5-fluorouracil (20 mg/kg, i.p.) once a day for 14 days. The fourth and fifth group animals received 250 and 500 mg/kg of ethanol extracts of D. peltata (EEDP) whereas the sixth and seventh groups of mice received 250 and 500 mg/kg of aqueous extracts of D. peltata (AEDP), orally for 14 days. All the groups were inoculated with DAL (2 × 106 cells/mouse, i.p.) except group I, 24 hours before the commencement of the drug treatment. After the completion of treatment, blood was drawn retro-orbitally and the animals were sacrificed to isolate the liver, lungs, kidneys, and brain for observing tissue antioxidant status. The parameters analyzed were total protein (TP), catalase (CAT), malondialdehyde (MDA), superoxide dismutase (SOD), peroxidase (P), and glutathione (GSH) from the tissues apart, and the protein carbonyl content (PCC) also measured from the blood sample. Treatment with EEDP and AEDP significantly lowered the MDA levels from 23 to 10 mmol/ml in the blood, whereas from 28 to 4 nm/g in tissue isolates of the liver, lungs, kidneys, and brain. It also raised the TP, GSH, SOD, CAT, and P levels in the blood and in the tissue samples of the cancer cell line inoculated animals, where their levels were close to those observed in control (negative) group animals. The results proposed that both extracts of D. peltata ameliorated various tissue antioxidant levels in mice with DAL cancer lines comparable to the negative control.