ABSTRACT
Background: Oroxylum indicum Vent., a Dasamula plant used in Ayurveda possesses antioxidantproperties.Objectives: To evaluate the cardioprotective effect of 70% methanolic extract of O. indicum Vent. root bark(OIM) against doxorubicin induced cardiomyopathy in female Sprague Dawley rats.Materials and methods: Cardiotoxicity was induced by intra-peritoneal injection of doxorubicin 30 mg/kg body weight (b.w.) for 4 consecutive days after a ten-day pre-treatment of animals with OIM at200 mg/kg b.w. and 400 mg/kg b.w (p.o.). Drug treatment continued up to day 14. Probucol, orallyadministered at a dose of 20 mg/kg b.w. served as standard. ECG was recorded. The animals weresacrificed on day 15 and comparative analysis of serum marker levels of creatine phosphokinase (CPK),lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), Serum Glutamate Oxaloacetate Transaminase (SGOT), Serum GlutamatePyruvate Transaminase (SGPT), tissue antioxidant status based on Superoxide Dismutase (SOD),Glutathione Peroxidase (GPx), reduced Glutathione (GSH) and lipid peroxidation (LPO) was carried out.Histopathological examination was carried out using hematoxylineeosin staining.Results: ECG records of OIM treated animals showed normal pattern, in comparison to the control withST depression and arrhythmia in cardiogram. Tissue antioxidant profile (SOD, GSH and GPx) wassignificantly (p < 0.01) elevated in the cardiac tissue of treated group in dose-dependent manner; lipidperoxidation level was found to decrease with treatment. Comparative analysis of serum markers e CPK,LDH, SGOT and SGPT e among untreated control, standard and extract treated groups revealed that OIMextract at 400 mg/kg b.w. dose significantly reduced the levels (p < 0.01). Histological analysis revealednormal myocardial architecture in OIM treated groups. HPTLC fingerprint of OIM revealed 8 bands anddetected the presence of chrysin, apigenin and quercetin.Conclusion: O. indicum root bark shows marked cardio-protective activity, possibly due to the presence ofantioxidant compounds acting synergistically.© 2017 Transdisciplinary University, Bangalore and World Ayurveda Foundation. Publishing Services byElsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).