Prickly Pear Cactus (Opuntia ficus indicavar.saboten) Protects Against Stress-Induced Acute Gastric Lesions in Rats

Abstract

The protective activity of prickly pear cactus (Opuntia ficus indica var. saboten) fruit juice and its main constituent, betanin, were evaluated against stress-induced acute gastric lesions in rats. After 6 h of water immersion restraint stress (WIRS), gastric mucosal lesions with bleeding were induced in Sprague-Dawley rats. Pretreatment of a lyophilized powder containing O. ficus indica var. saboten fruit juice and maltodextrin (OFSM) and betanin significantly reduced stress lesions (800-1600 mg/kg). Both OFSM and betanin effectively prevented the decrease in gastric mucus content as detected by alcian blue staining. In addition, OFSM significantly suppressed WIRS-induced increases in the level of gastric mucosal tumor necrosis factor-a and myeloperoxidase (MPO). Betanin alone was only effective in decreasing MPO. These results revealed the protective activity of OFSM against stress-induced acute gastric lesions and that betanin may contribute to OFSM's gastric protective activity, at least in part. When OFSM and betanin were taken together, OFSM exerted gastroprotective activity against stress-induced gastric lesions by maintaining gastric mucus, which might be related to the attenuation of MPOmediated damage and proinflammatory cytokine production.KEY WORDS: betanin gastric lesion Opuntia ficus indica var. saboten water immersion restraint stress

Hepatoprotective Effect of Opuntia robusta and Opuntia streptacantha Fruits against Acetaminophen-Induced Acute Liver Damage

“…Studies have investigated the capacity of betalains, mainly betanin, to scavenge free radicals in vitro, and this capacity is even higher than that of vitamin C [34,68]. Betanin has also been reported to inhibit cancer cell proliferation in vitro and in vivo [18], and it protects against acute lung injury and gastric lesions [30,69]. …”

“…Rats were pretreated with daily oral doses of cactus extract (800 mg/kg), according to the protocol of Kim et al [30] with some modifications) or GSH (50 mg/kg, intraperitoneally) for five days before APAP treatment (500 mg/kg intraperitoneally; single dose). Samples of blood and liver tissue were collected 4 h after APAP intoxication for assessment of liver damage markers [45].…”

“…Cactus pear fruits are now recognized as a rich source of nutritional compounds with health-promoting activities, including antioxidant [22,23,24,25,26], neuroprotective, anti-inflammatory, cardioprotective, anti-diabetic [27], anti-clastogenic [28] and anti-genotoxic actions [16]. In addition, they have protective effects on erythrocyte membranes [29] and on acute gastric lesions [30], and they improve platelet function [31] and cancer chemoprevention [18]. Interestingly, APAP-induced liver injury is one of the most widely-used models to evaluate the hepatoprotective potential of natural products [32].…”

Evaluation of antidiabetic properties of cactus pear seed oil in rats

“…The fresh fruits are widely consumed, and parts are used as functional foods, therapeutics, and animal food (Feugang et al, 2006). Many studies (Deters et al, 2012;Feugang et al, 2010;Kim et al, 2012;Tesoriere et al, 2004;Zou et al, 2005) have shown that cactus pears can reduce oxidative stress and may prevent cancer.…”

Opuntia Fruits as a Source of Inexpensive Functional Food

“…The pretreatment with the extract protected from the hepatic and renal histopathological and oxidative damage, as manifested in the lowered TBARS and enhanced SOD, CAT and GSH-Px level. Kim et al (2012) evaluated the protective activity of O. ficus indica var. saboten fruit juice and its constituent betanin against stress-induced acute gastric lesions in rats.…”