Hypocholesterolemic Effect and In Vitro Pancreatic Lipase Inhibitory Activity of an Opuntia ficus-indica Extract.

Eduardo Padilla-Camberos,Kirk Allen,Joel Carmona-De La Luz,Jose Miguel Flores-Fernandez,Fabiola Sandoval-Salas,Yanet Gutierrez-Mercado,Carlos Mendez-Carreto,Ofelia Fernandez-Flores

doi:10.1155/2015/837452

Eduardo Padilla-Camberos, Kirk Allen + Show 6 more

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https://doi.org/10.1155/2015/837452

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Abstract

Cholesterol control is fundamental for prevention of cardiovascular disorders. In this work, the hypocholesterolemic activity of an aqueous Opuntia ficus-indica extract (AOE) was tested in triton-induced mice. The inhibitory activity on pancreatic lipase enzyme was evaluated in vitro by the same extract. Furthermore, polyphenol content of the extract was evaluated. Hypercholesterolemia was induced in three groups of mice by intraperitoneal administration of Triton WR-1339. After induction of hypercholesterolemia, the groups were treated with an AOE (500 mg/kg) and saline solution and the positive control group with orlistat, respectively. Cholesterol levels were measured 24 h later in peripheral blood. The levels of blood cholesterol after administration of AOE significantly decreased compared to negative control. The inhibitory activity of AOE on pancreatic lipase enzyme was evaluated at concentrations from 60 to 1000 μg/mL. The AOE inhibited the pancreatic lipase with an IC50 = 588.5 μg/mL. The AOE had a high content of polyphenolic compounds. These results show that AOE is able to prevent hypercholesterolemia by pancreatic lipase inhibition, in part due to its polyphenolic compounds.

Highlights

Cardiovascular disease is the most common cause of death globally, including Mexico [1]
The IC50 values calculated were 588.5 μg/mL for aqueous Opuntia ficus-indica extract (AOE) and 1.57 μg/mL for orlistat. This result shows that the inhibition of pancreatic lipase caused by aqueous extract of Opuntia ficus-indica is similar to crude extracts of Korean plants such as Rubi fructus, Corni fructus, Salicis radicis, and Geranium nepalense, where their inhibition has been reported as 31–38% [23]
This study conducted on Opuntia ficus-indica confirms previously observed biological activity in other species of genre Opuntia and proposed an action mechanism based on enzyme inhibition

Summary

Introduction

Cardiovascular disease is the most common cause of death globally, including Mexico [1]. The genus Opuntia, with about 200 species, belongs to the family Cactaceae. They are grown in several countries including Mexico [2]. There are few studies on the most common culinary species, Opuntia ficus-indica, and the mechanism of hypocholesterolemic activity is not clear. Polyphenolic compounds have shown antioxidant, antiinflammatory, enzyme inhibition, antimicrobial, antiallergic, antitumor, and antidiabetic activities [9,10,11]. We evaluated the inhibitory activity in vitro of the pancreatic lipase enzyme by an aqueous Opuntia ficus-indica extract (AOE) to explore a possible mechanism of its hypocholesterolemic activity. All mice were housed in an environment of 23±2∘C, 54± 11% relative humidity, 10–15 air changes per hour ventilation rate, and 12 : 12 hours of dark and light cycle and provided with standard diet and purified water ad libitum

Materials and Methods

Results and Discussion

Conclusions