Abstract

Objective: To investigate whether D-pinitol efficiently scavenge free radicals using various in vitro models [1, 1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH), nitric oxide, superoxide anion and total antioxidant activity] and in vivo models. Methods: Female Sprague-Dawley rats (150-160 g) were divided into four groups and each group consisting of six animals. Group I and group IV were vector and drug control. The group II and group III animals were treated with 7, 12-dimethylbenz(a)anthracene (DMBA) 20 mg/kg body weight to induce mammary carcinoma. Rats received cancer bearing Group III animals were treated with D-pinitol at the concentration of 200 mg/kg bodyweight for 45 d orally. Five different concentrations of D-pinitol (100 to 500 µg/mL) were used in in vitro studies. Results: The results revealed that D-pinitol efficiently scavenges DPPH radicals and the IC50 was found to be 290 µg/mL and it also exhibited a dose dependent antioxidant activity at different concentrations. In addition, the superoxide and nitricoxide radicals were also significantly inhibited by D-pinitol at the concentrations of 360 and 390 µg/mL respectively. On the other hand, D-pinitol has significantly increased antioxidant enzymes during DMBA induced mammary carcinoma. Conclusions: It can be concluded from the investigation that D-pinitol has an excellent antioxidant activity which could be due to the scavenging capacities on the stable DPPH radicals, superoxide, nitric oxide and DMBA induced free radicals thereby it exhibits remarkable total antioxidant activity.

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