Preventive effects of dietary cabbage acylated anthocyanins on paraquat-induced oxidative stress in rats.

The preventive effects of acylated anthocyanins from red cabbage on paraquat-induced oxidative stress were determined in rats. Decreased food intake and body weight gain, and increased lung weight and atherogenic index by feeding the rats on a diet containing paraquat were clearly suppressed by supplementing acylated anthocynins to the paraquat diet. Paraquat feeding increased the concentration of thiobarbituric acid-reactive substances (TBARS) in liver lipids, and decreased the liver triacylglycerol level. These effects tended to be suppressed by supplementing acylated anthocynins to the paraquat diet. In addition, the catalase activity in the liver mitochondrial fraction was markedly decreased by feeding on the paraquat diet, this decrease being partially suppressed by supplementing the paraquat diet with acylated anthocyanins. An increase in the NADPH-cytochrome-P450-reductase activity in the liver microsome fraction by paraquat was suppressed by supplementing the paraquat diet with acylated anthocyanins. These results suggest that acylated anthocyanins from red cabbage acted preventively against the oxidative stress in vivo that may have been due to active oxygen species formed through the action of paraquat.