Atividades antioxidante e hepatoprotetora da polpa de caju (Anacardium occidentale L.) e ácidos anacárdicos em resposta ao estresse induzido por paracetamol.

Abstract

Many substances have been tested for their ability to protect against paracetamol toxicity and those that possess antioxidant properties have been the ones of major interest. The cashew tree is a tropical plant known for its biological properties related to its antioxidant potential. This work aims to evaluate the hepatoprotective effect of cashew apple pulp and anacardic acids in response to stress induced by paracetamol. Thus, were determined in the cashew apple pulp the levels of vitamin C, anthocyanins, flavonoids yellow, carotenoids, total polyphenols and total antioxidant activity. The anacardic acids were extracted from cashew nut shell liquid (CNSL) and antioxidant activity was determined by ABTS and DPPH methods. The evaluation of hepatoprotective effect consisted on intragastric feeding (i.g.) of different groups of Swiss mice for 15 consecutive days with cashew apple pulp and anacardic acids. On 15th day of treatment, one hour after the last dose, animals received or not acute dose of paracetamol. Blood samples were collected for dosages of enzyme activities, alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) in serum. In the liver, lipid peroxidation, non-protein sulfhydryl groups (NP-SH) and the activity of superoxide dismutase (SOD) were evaluated. The phytochemical profile of cashew apple pulp revealed the presence of vitamin C (115.62 ± 2.058 mg/100g), anthocyanins (3.40 ± 0.6777 mg/100 g), yellow flavonoids (10.19 ± 1.3046 mg/100 g), carotenoids (0.71 ± 0.0036 mg/100g) and polyphenols (626.5 ± 3.536 mg/100g). The total antioxidant activity of cashew apple pulp was 14.495 ± 0.2475 µM Trolox/g sample and 6131.909 ± 46.444 g sample/g DPPH and of the anacardic acids was 2113.72 ± 141.8456 µM Trolox/g sample and ± 1073.28 11.7217 g sample/g DPPH. Pretreatment with cashew apple pulp and anacardic acids reduced the activity of the enzymes ALT, AST and ALP in response to stress induced by paracetamol. The cashew apple pulp and anacardic acids reduced lipid peroxidation, inhibited the depletion of NP-SH and SOD activity. The hepatoprotective action of the anacardic acids was more efficient than the cashew apple pulp.