Comparative study of antioxidants: curcumin and capsaicin on stress induced rats and its effects on liver

Oxidative stress is considered to impair health. The cell damage caused by the free radicals, generated by oxidative stress is believed to be a key reason for the pathogenesis of several diseases. Present study has designed to find out the acute and chronic effect of stress on the liver and to compare the antioxidant and hepatoprotective effect of curcumin and capsaicin. Forty two male wistar rates were examined for ten days. Results of the study revealed that both acute and chronic stress have altered the endogenous antioxidants like glutathione and peroxidase. it also increases the lipid peroxidation. It is found that the level of hepatic glutathione is decreased by 33.63% and 51.51% and in acute and chronic groups respectively. The blood glutathione level and the peroxidase enzyme also followed the same trend. MDA, the end product of lipid peroxidation is increased by 18.08% and 32.64%  in the same groups. Both the curcumin and capsaicin showed the similar antioxidant and hepatoprotective effect and it regained the endogenous antioxidant level in to normal range.  Our data also revealed that there is no significant difference between the antioxidant and hepatoprotective effect of curcumin and capsaicin.