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Anticancer activity of pomegranate extract: effect on hematological and antioxidant profile against ehrlich-ascites-carcinoma in Swiss albino mice

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Abstract

Pomegranate (Punica granatum Linn), has been widely used in India’s ancient Ayurveda system of traditional medicine which is commonly portrayed as a constituent in remedies. The present study was aimed to investigate the anticancer activity of the aqueous extract of P. granatum fruits (PGET) against ehrlich-ascites-carcinoma (EAC)-bearing Swiss albino mice. The PGET were administered to EAC bearing mice at the doses of 100, 200 and 400 mg/kg body weight (BW) intraperitonially for 14 successive days and 24 h of last dose and 18 h of fasting, the mice were sacrificed and the anticancer effect of PGET was appraised by evaluating tumor volume, viable, nonviable tumor cell count, tumor weight, hematological, biochemical parameters and histopathological changes of EAC mice. PGET showed momentous decrease in tumor volume, viable cell count, tumor weight and elevated the life span of EAC bearing mice. Hematological profile such as RBC, hemoglobin and lymphocyte count reverted to normal level in PGET treated mice. The extract at 400 mg/kg BW showed a noteworthy reduction in the level of lipid peroxidation and considerably increased the levels of antioxidant enzymes in the liver and observed significant restoration of histopathological changes in experimental animals. Hence, the current study revealed that the PGET was efficient in inhibiting the tumor growth in ascitic models and that is comparable to 5-Fluorouracil. The anticancer properties of P. granatum could be due to the presence of the various phytoconstituents in it.

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Acknowledgement

The authors thank Muthyammal College of Arts and Science, Tamilnadu, India for providing facilities to do animal studies and also express heartfelt thanks to the management of K. S. Rangasamy College of Arts and Science, Tiruchengode, Tamilnadu for their support and encouragement.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biochemistry, Centre for Biological Sciences, K. S. Rangasamy College of Arts and Science (Autonomous), Tiruchengode, Namakkal Dt, Tamilnadu, 637215, India

    V. V. Sathibabu Uddandrao, P. R. Nivedha, K. Swapna, P. Rameshreddy, S. Vadivukkarasi & Saravanan Ganapathy

  2. ICMR-National Animal Resource Facility for Biomedical Research (NARFBR), Hyderabad, Telangana, 500007, India

    Brahmanaidu Parim

  3. Department of Biochemistry, Muthyammal College of Arts and Science, Rasipuram, Tamilnadu, 637408, India

    Mustapha Shabana Begum

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  1. V. V. Sathibabu Uddandrao
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  2. Brahmanaidu Parim
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  3. P. R. Nivedha
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  4. K. Swapna
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  5. P. Rameshreddy
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  6. S. Vadivukkarasi
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  7. Mustapha Shabana Begum
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  8. Saravanan Ganapathy
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Saravanan Ganapathy.

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Ethical statement

The animal experiments were conducted according to the guidelines of Committee for the Purpose of Control and Supervision of Experiments on Animals (CPCSEA), Government of India. The protocol of this study was approved by the institutional ethical committee of Muthyammal College of Arts and Science, Rasipuram, Tamilnadu, India (Approval No: 1416/P0/a/11/CPCSEA).

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This manuscript described has not been published before; not under consideration for publication anywhere else; and has been approved by all co-authors.

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Uddandrao, V.V.S., Parim, B., Nivedha, P.R. et al. Anticancer activity of pomegranate extract: effect on hematological and antioxidant profile against ehrlich-ascites-carcinoma in Swiss albino mice. Orient Pharm Exp Med 19, 243–250 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13596-018-0348-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13596-018-0348-4

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