Therapeutic potential of P. santalinus against alcohol-induced histopathological changes and oxidative damage in heart and lungs

Abstract

Alcohol consumption is the third leading cause of global deaths due to Alcoholic Liver Disease ( ALD) and Coronary Heart Disease (CHD), accounting for 4.5% of total deaths. The present investigation aimed at forwarding P. santalinus heartwood extract (PSE) as a potential therapeutic agent to alleviate alcohol -induced oxidative stress and tissue damage. In this study male albino Wistar rats were treated with 20% alcohol (5g/kg b.wt/day) and PSE (250mg/kg b.wt/day) for 60 days. Results showed that chronic alcohol administration significantly ( P<0.05) increased lipid peroxides and nitric oxide (NOx) level s in heart and lung tissues, surprisingly these levels were brought back close to normal level by PSE administration to alcohol administered rats. Moreover, alcohol administration decreased the content of reduced glutathione (GSH) and activities of glutathione peroxidase (GPx), gluta- thiones  transferase  (GST), glutathione reductase (GR), superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT) in heart and lung, which were significantly raised to normal level by the administration of PSE. Phytoextracts contain several active components acting on different potential molecular targets/sites at a time rendering protection and ameliorating alcoholic damage or toxicity and/or by reducing the burden of alcohol related diseases and risk. Furthermore, alcohol induced tissue damage mitigation by the PSE was confirmed by histopathological restoration in heart and lung. Multiple phytocompounds likesantalins, lignans, lupeol, pterostilbenes present in PSE might have shown protection against alcohol-induced damage by exhibiting strong free radical   scavenging activity and acting at different signaling mechanisms or modulating the factors involved in gene expression.