Bee pollen has been used as an apitherapy agent for several centuries to treat burns, wounds, gastrointestinal disorders, and various other diseases. The aim of our study was to investigate the hepatoprotective effects of chestnut bee pollen against carbon tetrachloride (CCI4)-induced liver damage. Total phenolic content, flavonoid, ferric reducing/antioxidant power, and DPPH radical activity measurements were used as antioxidant capacity determinants of the pollen. The study was conducted in rats as seven groups. Two different concentrations of chestnut bee pollens (200 and 400 mg/kg/day) were given orally and one group was administered with silibinin (50 mg/kg/day, i.p.) for seven days to the rats following the CCI4 treatment. The protective effect of the bee pollen was monitored by aspartate transaminase (AST) and alanine transaminase (AST) activities, histopathological imaging, and antioxidant parameters from the blood and liver samples of the rats. The results were compared with the silibinin-treated and untreated groups. We detected that CCI4 treatment induced liver damage and both the bee pollen and silibinin-treated groups reversed the damage; however, silibinin caused significant weight loss and mortality due, severe diarrhea in the rats. The chestnut pollen had showed 28.87 mg GAE/g DW of total phenolic substance, 8.07 mg QUE/g DW of total flavonoid, 92.71 mg Cyn-3-glu/kg DW of total anthocyanins, and 9 mg β-carotene/100 g DW of total carotenoid and substantial amount of antioxidant power according to FRAP and DPPH activity. The results demonstrated that the chestnut bee pollen protects the hepatocytes from the oxidative stress and promotes the healing of the liver damage induced by CCI4 toxicity. Our findings suggest that chestnut bee pollen can be used as a safe alternative to the silibinin in the treatment of liver injuries.

The aim of this study was to investigate the protective effect of Diospyros lotus (DL) on cisplatin (CP)-induced testicular damage in male rats. Twenty-eight male rats were randomly divided into four groups: group 1 - control, given isotonic saline solution; group 2 - CP 7 mg kg(-1) given intraperitoneally as single dose; group 3 - DL 1000 mg kg(-1) per day given orally for 10 days; group 4 - CP and DL given together at the same doses. CP caused a significant increase in thiobarbituric acid-reactive substances (TBARS) level and a significant decrease in superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione peroxidase (GPx), catalase (CAT) and glutathione (GSH) levels in rats testis tissues compared to the control group. CP caused a significant increase in lipid peroxidation in testis tissues compared to the control group, whereas DL led to a significant increase in SOD and GSH levels. However, there were no statistically significant changes in GPx and CAT levels. In addition, serum testosterone levels, sperm concentration and sperm motility were significantly decreased, but abnormal sperm rate and histological changes were increased with CP. However, these effects of CP on sperm parameters, histological changes and the tissue weights were eliminated by DL treatment. In conclusion, our study showed that the reproductive toxicity caused by CP may be prevented by DL treatment.

Our results suggest that honey, propolis, pollen, and royal jelly significantly enhanced the healing of CCl4-induced liver damage, partially due to their antioxidant properties and bioavailability.

Vaccinium arctostaphylos L. and Vaccinium myrtillus L. which are found naturally in most part of Blacksea Region, and Artvin are generally called bear grape, Trabzon tea, and likapa. In addition, different varieties of blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum L.) have been cultivated in Artvin region for 5 or 6 years. Blueberries contain appreciable levels of phenolic compounds, including anthocyanins and flavonols that have high biological activity. V. arctostaphylos and V. myrtillus show that natural distrubition with received V. corymbosum of different cultured species in Artvin region will be determined antioxidant activity in this study. In this study showed that wild species had a higher antioxidant effect than cultivated species. V. myrtillus had high total polyphenols (11.539-20.742 mg GAE/g dry sample), flavonoids (1.182-2.676 mg QE/g dry sample) and anthocyanins (3.305-11.473 mg Cyn/g dry sample) than V. corymbosum species. In addition, wild species had high CUPRAC, FRAP and DPPH values. The antioxidant activities found with CUPRAC, expressed as trolox equivalent antioxidant capacity ranged from 0.143 to 0.297 mmol TEAC/g dry sample. Those determined with DPPH expressed as IC50 ranged from 0.229 to 1.178 mg/ml. Those determined with FRAP expressed as