Abstract
Chili pepper is used as a food, seasoning and has been revered for its medicinal and health claims. It is very popular and is the most common spice worldwide. Capsaicin (CAP) is a major pungent and bioactive phytochemical in chili peppers. CAP has been shown to improve mitochondrial biogenesis and adenosine triphosphate (ATP) production. However, there is limited evidence around the effects of CAP on physical fatigue and exercise performance. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the potential beneficial effects of CAP on anti-fatigue and ergogenic functions following physiological challenge. Female Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) mice from four groups (n = 8 per group) were orally administered CAP for 4 weeks at 0, 205, 410, and 1025 mg/kg/day, which were respectively designated the vehicle, CAP-1X, CAP-2X, and CAP-5X groups. The anti-fatigue activity and exercise performance was evaluated using forelimb grip strength, exhaustive swimming time, and levels of serum lactate, ammonia, glucose, BUN (blood urea nitrogen) and creatine kinase (CK) after a 15-min swimming exercise. The grip strength and exhaustive swimming time of the CAP-5X group were significantly higher than other groups. CAP supplementation dose-dependently reduced serum lactate, ammonia, BUN and CK levels, and increased glucose concentration after the 15-min swimming test. In addition, CAP also increased hepatic glycogen content, an important energy source for exercise. The possible mechanism was relevant to energy homeostasis and the physiological modulations by CAP supplementation. Therefore, our results suggest that CAP supplementation may have a wide spectrum of bioactivities for promoting health, performance improvement and fatigue amelioration.
Highlights
Capsaicin (CAP, trans-8-methyl-N-vanillyl-6-nonenamide) is, a plant with origins in the Americas.It is a naturally occurring phytochemical and is one of the active ingredients of red and chili peppers [1,2].Peppers have become a popular culinary spice for food throughout the world
The total capsaicin content of CAP extracts was determined by a high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method
A Hitachi Primaide 1110 HPLC pump system equipped with a Primaide 1430 diode array detector and Primaide 1210 autosampler was used to analyze capsaicin on an Phenomenex Luna C18 column (i.d. 4.6 × 250 mm) at 280 nm
Summary
Capsaicin (CAP, trans-8-methyl-N-vanillyl-6-nonenamide) is, a plant with origins in the Americas.It is a naturally occurring phytochemical and is one of the active ingredients of red and chili peppers [1,2].Peppers have become a popular culinary spice for food throughout the world. Capsaicin (CAP, trans-8-methyl-N-vanillyl-6-nonenamide) is, a plant with origins in the Americas. It is a naturally occurring phytochemical and is one of the active ingredients of red and chili peppers [1,2]. Pepper plants are shallow-rooted and lack a taproot, which are notorious for their sensitivity to moisture stress at Nutrients 2016, 8, 648; doi:10.3390/nu8100648 www.mdpi.com/journal/nutrients. Nutrients 2016, 8, 648 flowering and fruit setting. CAP is an odorless white crystal with severe burning pungency [3]. Pungency is influenced by the weather conditions such as heat waves and moisture and increases with the growth of the maturity of fruit [4,5]. The gland on the placenta of the fruit produces
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