Study of Baccaurea angulata (belimbing dayak) on cardiovascular diseases indices and its toxicity effects

Abstract

Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) have become a leading cause of death and disability and staggering increase in its incidence has been documented worldwide. Previous conducted research has provided the evidence on effectiveness of antioxidative properties of polyphenols contained in fruits and vegetables at combating various chronic diseases including CVD. Baccaurea angulata, locally known as 'belimbing dayak‘ or 'belimbing hutan‘ is one edible fruit species restrictedly distributed in Sabah and Sarawak. This present study was aimed to provide scientific data on nutritional information and health benefits of B. angulata juice extract (BAE). Pearson‘s correlation was used to obtained corelation whereas analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to test the mean different among data. Freeze dried BAE consisted of high carbohydrate followed by moisture, total dietary fiber, ash, and protein. The extract holds high energy density with low water activity (Aw) value for storage stability. Phytochemical screening revealed that BAE contained of 7.90 0.05 mg gallic acid equivalent (GAE)/g of total phenolic acids and 12.74 0.24 mg quercetin equivalent (QE)/g of total flavonoids content and both were strongly correlated to ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) value (p<0.01) but not to superoxide anion/xanthine oxidase dismutase (XOD) scavenging capacity. Male Sprague Dawley rats were induced with high cholesterol diet (normal rat chow enriched with 1 % cholesterol and 0.2 % cholic acid) and supplemented with BAE given orally for 10 weeks. No significant changes in body weight, heart and kidney weight were notified. Liver weight was significantly higher in groups consuming high cholesterol diet (p<0.05) than in normal control with slight decrease in groups supplemented with BAE than hypercholesterolemic control (CP). Plasma and liver total cholesterol (TC), triglycerides (TG), low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-c), and atherogenic index (AI) were markedly increased in CP group with significant values in TC, LDL-c, and AI (p<0.05) and reduced in high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-c). Reduction of plasma and liver TC, TG, LDL-c and AI were observed in dose-dependent manner upon consumption of 100 (TL), 300 (TM) and 500 mg (TH) of BAE/kg body weight/day with significant reduction in plasma TG (p<0.05). Notable increase in plasma HDL-c was found in all groups consuming BAE compared to CP group but liver HDL-c was less affected. The highly reduced plasma and liver glutathione peroxidase (GPx) and superoxide dismutase (SOD), in CP group were raised in all groups consuming BAE especially by TM group (300 mg BAE/kg bodyweight/day). Remarkably, with reference to normal control, plasma SOD value was successfully restored in TM and TH groups. In determining the effects of post BAE administration towards liver and kidney, no significant changes (p>0.05) in aspartate transaminase (AST), alanine transaminase (ALT), alkaline phosphatase (ALP), total protein, albumin, urea, and creatinine levels were evaluated. Notable increased in AST, ALT, and ALP were observed in CP group due to hypercholesterolemic condition and with reference to normal control, these parameters were least affected in TM group. Furthermore, BAE showed no significant effects towards haematological parameters.