Modulatory influence of Phyllanthus niruri on oxidative stress, antioxidant defense and chemically induced skin tumors

Abstract

The present study evaluates the modulatory potential of Phyllanthus niruri on chemically induced skin carcinogenesis, and its influence on oxidative stress and the antioxidant defense system. Oral administration of P. niruri extract (PNE), during peri- (Gr. III), post- (Gr. IV), or peri- and post- (Gr. V) initiational stages of 7,12-dimethylbenz(a) anthracene (DMBA)-croton oil–induced papillomagenesis considerably reduced tumor burden to 4.20, 4.00, and 3.33(positive control value 6.20); cumulative number of papillomas to 21, 16, and 10, respectively, (positive control value 62); and incidence of mice bearing papillomas to 50, 40, and 30%, respectively (positive control value 100%), but significantly increased the average latent period to 10.14, 10.62, and 11.60, and inhibition of tumor multiplicity to 66, 74,and 83%, respectively. Enzyme analysis of skin and liver showed a significant (p ≤ 0.05, ≤ 0.01, ≤ 0.001) elevation in antioxidant parameters such as superoxide dismutase, catalase, glutathione, and vitamin C in PNE-treated groups (Gr. III–V) when compared with the carcinogen-treated control (Gr. II). The elevated level of lipid peroxidation in the carcinogen-treated positive control group was significantly (p ≤ 0.05, ≤ 0.01, ≤ 0.001) inhibited by PNE administration. These results indicate that P. niruri extract has potentiality to reduce skin papillomas by enhancing antioxidant defense system.

Medicinal plants in the treatment ofHelicobacter pyloriinfections

“…Recently, hepatoprotective (Ho et al, 2012), antipyretic, anti-inflammatory, antinociceptive (Obidike et al, 2010), antiplasmodial (Mustofa et al, 2007), and antitumor activities by enhancing antioxidant defense (Sharma et al, 2011) have been reported for Phyllanthus niruri L. (Chancapiedra). In a screening test for the detection of plants with anti-H. pylori activity, P. niruri showed anti-H. pylori effects against metronidazole-resistant H. pylori strains (Uyub et al, 2010).…”

Bioguided Fraction and Isolation of the Antitumor Components fromPhyllanthus niruriL.

“…P. niruri has been found to exhibit antitumor [ 8 ], antiviral [ 4 ], antioxidant [ 9 ], anti-inflammatory [ 10 ], and antidiabetic [ 11 ] activities and radiation protection [ 12 ]. Particularly in antitumor activity, P. niruri extract shows potential in reducing chemically induced skin papillomas by enhancing antioxidant defense systems [ 13 ] and shows potential in the management of a two-stage skin carcinogenesis model in mice. The methanol extracts of P. niruri exhibited a 59.5% inhibition of rat aortic vascular growth and showed a significant decrease of 37.9% in the tube formation assay involving human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) on Matrigel [ 14 ].…”

“…To overcome these, the development of novel anticancer agents is an immense demand. Previous reports had implied that P. niruri is a candidate folk medicine [ 13 , 18 , 19 ]. However, most of previous studies in vitro/vivo just focused on the crude extracts from P. niruri [ 3 , 20 ].…”

Antioxidant Activity of some Medicinal Plant Extracts: Implications for Neuroprotection

“…DC. and M. pulegium aqueous and ethanolic extracts, have been shown to have several pharmacological properties [12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22] . Nevertheless, few studies have evaluated the effects of aqueous extracts, prepared as a tea, from these plants.…”

“…Accordingly, aqueous herbal extracts have attracted attention since they can be consumed in a daily basis as infusions. Additionally, the mechanism(s) involved in those therapeutic properties [12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22] , especially on antioxidant effect from these plants, are not fully understood. Of particular importance, it could be emphasized that supporting scientific data, concerning the neuroprotective potential of these plants, especially from aqueous extracts, are still scarce.…”