title: Garlic increases antioxidant levels in diabetic and hypertensive rats determined by a modified peroxidase method.
abstract: Oxidative damage by free radicals has been implicated in the pathogenesis of vascular disease in diabetes and hypertension. In the present study, the total antioxidant status in diabetic and hypertensive rats before and after treatment with garlic (Allium sativum) was determined. The total serum antioxidants were measured by a modified method reported earlier by Miller and coworkers. The reproducibility of the assay was confirmed by determining standard curves for the known antioxidants: trolox (a stable analog of vitamin E), glutathione and vitamin C with interassay correlation coefficients (R(2), n = 10 in triplicate) of 0.9984, 0.9768 and 0.987, respectively, confirming the reliability and reproducibility of the assay. This assay was then used to determine total serum antioxidant levels of streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats and two-kidney one-clip hypertensive rats both before and after 3 weeks of treatment with an aqueous extract of garlic (500 mg/kg IP daily). The serum antioxidant levels of rats after 3 weeks of treatment were significantly higher (P < .001) than the pretreatment levels in both diabetic and hypertensive rats. The increased serum antioxidant levels were paralleled by a decrease in serum glucose in the garlic-treated diabetic rats and lowered systolic blood pressure in the garlic-treated hypertensive rats. We conclude from our study that (i) total antioxidants can be measured by a simple, reproducible, reliable assay and (ii) the total antioxidant status can be significantly improved by treatment with garlic.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, Kuwait University, P.O. Box 5969, 13060-Safat, Kuwait.
authors.forename: Hana
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Drobiova
authors.forename: Martha
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Thomson
authors.forename: Khaled
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Al-Qattan
authors.forename: Riitta
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Peltonen-Shalaby
authors.forename: Zainab
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Al-Amin
authors.forename: Muslim
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ali