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Research Paper
Antidiarrheal and antioxidant activities of chamomile
(Matricaria recutita L.) decoction extract in rats
Hichem Sebai
a,b,
n
, Mohamed-Amine Jabri
a,b
, Abdelaziz Souli
b
, Kais Rtibi
b
, Slimen Selmi
b
,
Olfa Tebourbi
a
, Jamel El-Benna
c
, Mohsen Sakly
a
a
Laboratoire de Physiologie Intégrée, Faculté des Sciences de Bizerte, 7021 Zarzouna, Tunisia
b
Laboratoire de Nutrition et Physiologie Animale, Institut Supérieur de Biotechnologie de Béja, Avenue Habib Bourguiba, B.P., 382-9000 Béja, Tunisia
c
INSERM U773 Centre de Recherche Biomédicale, Faculté de Médecine X. Bichat, 75018 Paris, France
article info
Article history:
Received 31 August 2013
Received in revised form
21 November 2013
Accepted 14 January 2014
Available online 22 January 2014
Keywords:
Diarrhea
Chamomile
Oxidative stress
Iron
Rat
abstract
Ethnopharmacological relevance: Matricaria recutita L. (Chamomile) has been widely used in the Tunisian
traditional medicine for the treatment of digestive system disorders. The present work aims to
investigate the protective effects of chamomile decoction extract (CDE) against castor oil-induced
diarrhea and oxidative stress in rats.
Methods: The antidiarrheal activity was evaluated using castor oil-induced diarrhea method. In this
respect, rats were divided into six groups: Control, Castor oil, Castor oilþLoperamide (LOP) and Castor
oilþvarious doses of CDE. Animals were per orally (p.o.) pre-treated with CDE during 1 h and intoxicated
for 2 or 4 h by acute oral administration of castor oil.
Results: Our results showed that CDE produced a significant dose-dependent protection against castor
oil-induced diarrhea and intestinal fluid accumulation. On the other hand, we showed that diarrhea was
accompagned by an oxidative stress status assessed by an increase of malondialdehyde (MDA) level and
depletion of antioxidant enzyme activities as superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT) and glutathione
peroxidase (GPx). Castor oil also increased gastric and intestinal mucosa hydrogen peroxide (H
2
O
2
) and
free iron levels. Importantly, we showed that chamomile pre-treatment abrogated all these biochemical
alterations.
Conclusion: These findings suggested that chamomile extract had a potent antidiarrheal and antioxidant
properties in rats confirming their use in traditional medicine.
&2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
Diarrhea is a major health problem, especially for children
under the age of 5 years in developing countries including Tunisia
(Bryce et al., 2005). This disease is responsible for about 5 million
deaths annually (Heinrich et al., 2005). Diarrhea is characterized
by a discharge of semisolid or watery fecal matter from the bowel
three or more times in one day (Suleiman et al., 2008) leading to
inflammatory response and oxidative stress (Song et al., 2011).
To protect against this disease, commercial drugs such as diaretyl
are frequently used. This drug induces a severe constipation as a
side effect and can also lead to colorectal cancer (Power et al.,
2013). For this reason, the World Health Organization (WHO) has
introduced a program for diarrheal control which involves the use
of traditional herbal medicines. However, several naturally-
occurring compounds are largely used to protect against digestive
system diseases both in experimental and clinical situations.
Matricaria recutita L. (Chamomile) is a well-known medicinal
plant species from Asteraceae family. This species is one of the
most popular and widely used in traditional medicine for the
treatment of gastrointestinal disorders including diarrhea (Alanís
et al., 2005). However, due to its richness in therapeutically active
compounds (McKay and Blumberg, 2006), this plant presents
many beneficial health effects as antioxidant (Hernández-
Ceruelos et al., 2010), neuro-protective (Ranpariya et al., 2011),
anti-allergic (Chandrashekhar et al., 2011), anti-inflammatory
(Bulgari et al., 2012), anti-microbial (Silva et al., 2012) and antic-
ancer (Matićet al., 2013) activities. Chamomile is also used for its
positive effects against digestive system illness (Al-Hashem, 2010).
Hence, the present study aimed to investigate the putative
protective effect of CDE on diarrhea induced by castor oil admin-
istration as well as the implication of oxidative stress in such
protection.
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jep
Journal of Ethnopharmacology
0378-8741/$ - see front matter &2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jep.2014.01.015
Abbreviations: CAT, catalase; CDE, chamomile decoction extract; GPx, glutathione
peroxidase; H
2
O
2
, hydrogen peroxide; LOP, loperamide; MDA, malondialdehyde;
SOD, superoxide dismutase
n
Corresponding author at: Laboratoire de Physiologie Intégrée, Département des
Sciences de la Vie, Faculté des Sciences de Bizerte, 7021 Zarzouna, Tunisia.
Tel.: þ216 97 249 486; fax: þ216 72 590 566.
E-mail address: sebaihichem@yahoo.fr (H. Sebai).
Journal of Ethnopharmacology 152 (2014) 327–332
2. Materials and methods
2.1. Chemicals
Epinephrine, bovine catalase, 2-Thio-barbituric acid (TBA) and
butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT) were from Sigma chemicals Co.
(Germany). All other chemicals used were of analytical grade.
2.2. Preparation of chamomile decoction extract
Chamomile (Matricaria recutita L.) flowers were cultivated from
the region of Beja (North-West of Tunisia) during March 2012 and
identified by Mrs. Mouhiba Ben-Naceur, professor of taxonomy in
the Higher Institute of Biotechnology of Béja-Tunisia. The Voucher
specimens (No. M121) have been deposited with the herbarium of
the Higher Institute of Biotechnology of Béja and also in our
laboratory of integrated physiology in the Faculty of Sciences of
Bizerta. Plant material was subsequently dried in an incubator at
50 1C during 72 h and powdered in an electric blender. The
decoction was prepared with distilled water (1/5; w/v) at 100 1C
during 5 min under magnetic agitation and the homogenate was
filtered through a colander (0.5 mm mesh size). Finally, the
obtained extract (CDE) was stored at –80 1C until use.
2.3. Animals and treatment
Adult male Wistar rats (weighing 200–220 g; housed five per
cage) and adult male Swiss Albino mice (weighing approximately
25 g; housed ten per cage) were purchased from Pasteur Institute
of Tunis and used in accordance with the local ethic committee of
Tunis University for use and care of animals in conformity with the
NIH recommendations. They were provided with food (standard
pellet diet- Badr Utique-TN) and water ad libitum and maintained
in animal house at controlled temperature (22721C) with a 12 h
light-dark cycle.
2.4. Acute toxicity study
The chamomile decoction extract (CDE) in the dose range of
12.5, 25, 50 ,100, 200, 400, 800, 1600 and 3200 mg/kg was orally
administered to different groups of mice (n¼10). The animals
were examined every 30 min up to a period of 4 h and then,
occasionally for additional period of 8 h. After2 4 h , the mortality
was recorded. The mice were also observed for other signs of
toxicity, such as motor co-ordination, righting reflex and respira-
tory changes.
2.5. Treatment and evaluation of antidiarrheal activity
Rats were divided into six groups of 10 animals each. Groups 1
and 2 served as controls and received bidistilled water (5 mL/kg,
b.w.,p.o.). Groups 3, 4, and 5 were pre-treated with various doses of
chamomile decoction extract (25, 50 and 100 mg/kg, b.w. p.o.), while
group 6 was pre-treated with loperamide (20 mg/kg, b.w. i.p.).
After 60 min, each animal, except group 1, received castor oil
(5 mL/kg, b.w.) by gavage and placed in a separate cage for
antidiarrheal activity evaluation.
The antidiarrheal activity of chamomile was evaluated accord-
ing to the method of Awouters et al. (1978) modified by Mukherjee
et al. (1998). Briefly, after castor oil administration, animals were
observed for defecation up to 4 h. Transparent plastic dishes were
placed beneath each cage and the characteristic diarrheal drop-
pings were noted.
The intestinal fluid accumulation was determined according
to Dicarlo et al. (1994),withsomemodifications. Briefly, 2 hafter
castor oil administration, animals were anesthetized with urethane
(1.25 g/kg, i.p.). Laparotomy was performed and the small intestine
was removed, after ligation at the pyloric end and ileocaecal junction,
and weighed. The intestinal content was then expelled into a
graduated tube and the volume was determined. The small intestine
was reweighed and the difference between full and empty intestine
was calculated.
2.6. Lipid peroxidation measurement
The lipid peroxidation was determined by MDA measurement
according to the double heating method (Draper and Hadley, 1990).
Briefly, aliquots from gastric and intestine mucosa homogenates
were mixed with BHT-TCA solution containing 1% BHT (w/v) dis-
solved in 20% TCA (w/v) and centrifuged at 1000gfor 5 min at 4 1C.
Supernatants were blended with 0.5 N HCl, 120 mM TBA in 26 mM
Trisandthenheatedat801C for 10 min. After cooling, absorbance
of the resulting chromophore was determined at 532 nm using a
UV–visible spectrophotometer (Beckman DU 640B). MDA levels were
determined by using an extinction coefficient for MDA–TBA complex
of 1.56 10
5
M
1
cm
1
.
2.7. Antioxidant enzyme activity assays
SOD activity was determined by using modified epinephrine
assay (Misra and Fridovich, 1972). At alkaline pH, superoxide anion
O
2
causes the autoxidation of epinephrine to adenochrome, while
competing with this reaction, SOD decreased the adenochrome
formation. One unit of SOD is defined as the amount of the extract
that inhibits the rate of adenochrome formation by 50%. Enzyme
extract was added in 2 ml reaction mixture containing 10 μlof
bovine catalase (0.4 U/μl), 20 μl epinephrine (5 mg/ml) and
62.5 mM sodium carbonate/bicarbonate buffer pH 10.2. Changes
in absorbance were recorded at 480 nm.
CAT activity was assayed by measuring the initial rate of H
2
O
2
disappearance at 240 nm (Aebi, 1984). The reaction mixture
contained 33 mM H
2
O
2
in 50 mM phosphate buffer pH 7.0 and
CAT activity calculated using the extinction coefficient of
40 mM
1
cm
1
for H
2
O
2
.
GPx activity was measured by the procedure of Flohé and Günzler
(1984).Briefly, 1 mL of reaction mixture containing 0.2 mL of sample,
0.2mLofphosphatebuffer0.1MpH7.4,0.2mLofGSH(4mM)and
0.4 mL of H
2
O
2
(5 mM) was incubated at 37 1Cfor1minandthe
reaction stopped by addition of 0.5 mL TCA (5%, w/v). After centri-
fugation at 1500gfor 5 min, aliquot (0.2 mL) from supernatant was
mixed with 0.5 mL of phosphate buffer 0.1 M pH 7.4 and 0.5 mL
DTNB (10 mM) and absorbance recorded at 412 nm. GPx activity was
expressed as nmol of GSH consumed/min/mg protein.
2.8. H
2
O
2
determination
Gastric and intestine mucosa H
2
O
2
levels were performed
according to Dingeon et al. (1975). Briefly, in the presence of
peroxidase, the hydrogen peroxide reacts with p-hydroxybenzoic
acid and 4-aminoantipyrine leading to a quantitative formation of
a quinoneimine which has a pink color detected at 505 nm.
2.9. Iron measurement
Gastric and intestine mucosa non heme iron were measured
colorimetrically using ferrozine as described by Leardi et al. (1998).
Briefly, the iron dissociated from transferrin–iron complex by a
solution of guanidine acetate and reduced by ascorbic acid reacts
with ferrozine to give a pink complex measured at 562 nm.
H. Sebai et al. / Journal of Ethnopharmacology 152 (2014) 327–332328
2.10. Protein determination
Protein concentration was determined according to Hartree
(1972) which is a slight modification of the Lowry method. Serum
albumin was used as standard.
2.11. Statistical analysis
Data were analyzed by unpaired Student's t-test or one-way
analysis of variance (ANOVA) and were expressed as means7
standard error of the mean (SEM). Data are representative of ten
independent experiments. All statistical tests were two-tailed, and
apvalue of 0.05 or less was considered significant.
3. Results
3.1. Acute oral toxicity of CDE
In the acute oral toxicity study, neither abnormal behavior nor
mortality was detected during the observation period. The LD50
value was greater than 3200 mg/kg b.w. for the decoction extract
of Matricaria recutita.
3.2. Effects of CDE on castor oil-induced diarrhea
We firstly demonstrated in the present study that, 4 h after
castor oil (5 ml/kg, b.w., p.o.) administration, all rats produced
copious diarrhea (Table 1). However, pre-treatment with various
doses of CDE (25, 50 and 100 mg/kg, b.w., p.o.) significantly and
dose-dependently reduced the number of defecations. Adminis-
tration of loperamide (20 mg/kg, b.w., p.o.), a standard antidiar-
rheal molecule, produced a more marked antidiarrheal effect but
less than the high dose of CDE.
3.3. Effects of CDE on castor oil-induced enteropooling
The effects of CDE on castor oil-induced fluid accumulation are
presented in the Table 2. As expected, castor oil per se significantly
increased the volume and the weight of intestinal fluid when
compared to control group while loperamide reduced it to near
control level. Interestingly, CDE pre-treatment inhibited signifi-
cantly and dose dependently castor oil-induced enteropooling.
Table 1
Effect of chamomile decoction extract (CDE) and loperamide (LOP) on castor oil-induced diarrhea.
Group Onset of diarrhea (min) Total number of stools Number of wet stools Percentage of wet stools (%) Percentage protected (%)
Control –2.7670.19 0 0 –
Castor oil 7874.86 13.5 71.2 1
n
13.0170.39
n
96.37 0
Castor oilþCAM-25 98 75.01
#
9.2370.74
#
7.5470. 55
#
81.69 42.04
Castor oilþCAM-50 14778.78
#
7.3670.49
#
4.5770.6
#
62.09 64.87
Castor oilþCAM-100 191710.63
#
4.2170.32
#
3.2670.31
#
77.43 74.94
Castor oilþLOP 209 76.17
#
3.970.66
#
2.170.57
#
53.84 83.85
Animals were pre-treated with various doses of CDE (25, 50 and 100 mg/kg, p.o.), reference molecule (LOP, 20 mg/kg, b.w., i.p.) or vehicle (NaCl 0.9%). One hour after, animals
received castor oil (5 ml/kg b.w.) by gavage and observed for defecation up to 4 h.
n
po0.05 compared to control group.
#
po0.05 compared to castor oil group.
Table 2
Effect of chamomile decoction extract (CDE) and loperamide (LOP) on castor oil-induced enteropooling.
Group Volume of intestinal
content (ml)
Percentage
protected (%)
Weight of intestinal
content (g)
Percentage
protected (%)
Control 00 –00 –
Castor oil 4.970.27
n
00 5.42 70.59
n
00
Castor oilþCAM-25 3.55 70.19
#
27.55 4.0170.41
#
26.01
Castor oilþCAM-50 2.47 70.24
#
49.59 2.8470.33
#
47.60
Castor oilþCAM-100 1.7570.16
#
64.28 1.9870.15
#
63.46
Castor oilþLOP 1.5570.15
#
68.36 1.7770.13
#
67.34
Animals were pre-treated with various doses of CDE (25, 50 and 100 mg/kg, p.o.), reference molecule (LOP, 20 mg/kg, b.w., i.p.) or vehicle (NaCl 0.9%). One hour after, animals
received castor oil (5 ml/kg b.w.) by gavage for 2 h.
n
po0.05 compared to control group.
#
po0.05 compared to castor oil group.
Fig. 1. Effect of chamomile decoction extract (CDE) and loperamide (LOP) on castor
oil-induced changes in stomach and intestinal mucosa MDA level. Animals were
pre-treated with various doses of CDE (25, 50 and 100 mg/kg, p.o.), reference
molecule (LOP, 20 mg/kg, b.w., i.p.) or vehicle (NaCl 0.9%). One hour after, animals
received castor oil (5 ml/kg b.w.) by gavage for 2 h. Assays were carried out in
triplicate.
n
po0.05 compared to control group and
♯
po0.05 compared to castor
oil group.
H. Sebai et al. / Journal of Ethnopharmacology 152 (2014) 327–332 329
3.4. Effects of CDE on castor-oil induced gastric and intestinal
lipoperoxidation
To investigate the implication of oxidative stress in the anti-
diarrheal effect of CDE, stomach and intestinal mucosa were firstly
assessed for MDA determination. As expected, castor oil adminis-
tration significantly increased stomach and intestinal mucosa MDA
levels. Castor oil-induced lipoperoxidation was reduced by loper-
amide or chamomile pre-treatment in a dose dependant manner
(Fig. 1).
3.5. Effects of CDE on castor-oil induced mucosa antioxidant
enzymes depletion
We further looked at the effect of castor oil and CDE on
antioxidant enzymes activities (Fig. 2). Castor oil treatment dras-
tically decreased gastric and intestinal antioxidant enzyme activ-
ities as SOD (A), CAT (B) and GPx (C). Pre-treatment with CDE
significantly reduced all castor oil-induced decrease in antioxidant
enzyme activities in a dose-dependant manner. Loperamide, a
standard antidiarrheal molecule, also protected against castor oil-
induced antioxidant enzymes activities depletion.
3.6. Effects of CDE on castor-oil induced mucosa elevation of iron
and H
2
O
2
levels
We also studied the variation of hydrogen peroxide and free
iron levels in stomach and intestinal mucosa. Castor oil per se
significantly increased mucosal levels of H
2
O
2
and labile iron both
Fig. 2. Effect of chamomile decoction extract (CDE) and loperamide (LOP) on castor
oil-induced changes in stomach and intestinal mucosa antioxidant enzyme activ-
ities: SOD (A), CAT (B) and GPx (C). Animals were pre-treated with various doses of
CDE (25, 50 and 100 mg/kg, p.o.), reference molecule (LOP, 20 mg/kg, b.w., i.p.)or
vehicle (NaCl 0.9%). One hour after, animals received castor oil (5 ml/kg b.w.)by
gavage for 2 h. Assays were carried out in triplicate.
n
po0.05 compared to control
group and
♯
po0.05 compared to castor oil group.
Fig. 3. Effect of chamomile decoction extract (CDE) and loperamide (LOP) on castor
oil-induced changes in stomach and intestinal mucosa hydrogen peroxide level.
Animals were pre-treated with various doses of CDE (25, 50 and 100 mg/kg, p.o.),
reference molecule (LOP, 20 mg/kg, b.w., i.p.) or vehicle (NaCl 0.9%). One hour after,
animals received castor oil (5 ml/kg b.w.) by gavage for 2 h. Assays were carried out
in triplicate.
n
po0.05 compared to control group and
♯
po0.05 compared to castor
oil group.
Fig. 4. Effect of chamomile decoction extract (CDE) and loperamide (LOP) on castor
oil-induced changes in stomach and intestinal mucosa free iron level. Animals were
pre-treated with various doses of CDE (25, 50 and 100 mg/kg, p.o.), reference
molecule (LOP, 20 mg/kg, b.w., i.p.) or vehicle (NaCl 0.9%). One hour after, animals
received castor oil (5 ml/kg b.w.) by gavage for 2 h. Assays were carried out in
triplicate.
n
po0.05 compared to control group and
♯
po0.05 compared to castor
oil group.
H. Sebai et al. / Journal of Ethnopharmacology 152 (2014) 327–332330
in stomach and small intestine. However, acute pre-treatment
with loperamide or CDE significantly reduced the castor oil-
induced increase of H
2
O
2
and labile iron in a dose-dependant
manner (Fig. 3 and Fig. 4)
4. Discussion
In the present study, we evaluated the protective effects of
chamomile decoction extract against castor oil-induced diarrhea
in adult healthy rats as well as the implication of oxidative stress
in such a protection.
We firstly showed that the LD50 value was greater than
3200 mg/kg b.w. for the CDE. However, neither mortality nor
behavior impairment were noted during the observation period.
Chamomile methanol extract, has also been shown to have any
evidence of toxicity (Chandrashekhar et al., 2011).
We demonstrated in the present investigation that acute pre-
treatment with CDE protected against castor oil-induced diarrhea
by inhibiting the number of defecations when compared to
untreated group. Castor oil induced diarrhea by causing increased
mucosa secretion of fluid and electrolytes into the bowel lumen,
resulting in fluid accumulation and a watery luminal content that
flowed rapidly through the small and large intestines (Burks,
1991 ). The active component of castor oil has been demonstrated
to be the ricinoleic acid (Karim et al., 2010), which stimulated the
production of several mediator substances that include prosta-
glandins, nitric oxide, platelet activating factor, cAMP and tachy-
kinins (Izzo et al., 1999). Bacterial infection could also impair
bowel function and give rise to digestive system disorders as
diarrhea (Ojewole et al., 2008). In this context, chamomile extracts
have been widely studied for their inhibitor effects against some
bacterial strains such as Arcobacter butzleri (Cervenka et al., 2006)
and Helicobacter pylori (Shikov et al., 2008). We also showed in the
present study that CDE pre-treatment inhibited castor oil-induced
enteropooling in a dose-related manner. However, it is well-
known that drugs affecting frequency, and consistency of diarrhea
also affected secretion and fluid accumulation in small intestine
(Hsu, 1982; Amresh et al., 2004).
Castor oil-induced diarrhea and fluid accumulation have been
shown to be attenuated by many plant extracts as Strychnos
potatorum (Biswas et al., 2002), Amaranthus spinosus (Hussain
et al., 2009), Ixora Coccinea (Maniyar et al., 2010), Pyrenacantha
staudtii (Awe et al., 2011), Ficus bengalensis (Patil et al., 2012) and
Punica gratum (Das et al., 1999) or isolated molecules as ternatin
(Rao et al., 1997) and piperine (Bajad et al., 2001).
Particularly, our investigation revealed that acute administra-
tion of castor oil (5 ml/kg b.w., p.o.) for 2 h increased the formation
of MDA in the stomach and intestine mucosa indicating an
increase in lipid peroxidation and depletion of antioxidant activ-
ities of SOD, CAT and GPx. CDE pre-treatment prevented all the
alterations induced by castor oil in a dose-dependent manner and
returned their levels to near-normal with the highest dose. Our
results are in line with previous reports demonstrating that castor
oil-induced toxicity can be accompanied by an oxidative stress
status in the intestinal fluid (Rao et al., 2008). However, it is
generally accepted that reactive oxygen species-mediated lipid
peroxidation that resulted in extensive subcellular damage and
played a major role in the pathogenesis of gastrointestinal dis-
orders (Halliwell et al., 1992).
Previous studies have well shown the richness of extracts as
well as essential oil of chamomile in phenolic compounds
(Guimarães et al., 2013). These molecules such as quercetin and
cafeic acid previously identified by Nováková et al. (2010), are the
primal source of antioxidant ability of this plant, by scavenging
free radicals as hydroxyl radical (OHd) which is the major cause of
lipid peroxidation (Kogiannou et al., 2013). In addition, chamomile
extracts are especially known for their richness in tannins (Schulz
and Albroscheit, 1988). Besides their antioxidant activities, these
molecules are implicated in the regulation of diarrhea (Biswas
et al., 2002). Indeed, tannins are present in many plants and can
denature protein to form protein tannate complex which makes
the intestinal mucosa more resistant reducing its secretion
(Kouitcheu et al., 2006). However, apigenin and later apigenin-7-
glucoside were the first flavonoid compounds isolated from
chamomile (Nováková et al., 2010). These flavonoids are pre-
viously shown for their negative effect on both small and large
intestinal transit time in mice with castor oil-induced diarrhea (Di
Carlo et al., 1993). Castor oil-induced oxidative stress has also been
shown to be attenuated by Cinnamomum tamala ethanol extract
(Rao et al., 2008). Moreover, recent findings indicated that cha-
momile extracts protected against oxidative stress were induced
by cisplatin (Salama, 2012), hydrogen peroxide (Bhaskaran et al.,
2013), streptozotocin (Cemek et al., 2008) and ischemia injury
(Chandrashekhar et al., 2010).
More importantly, our data showed also that chamomile pre-
treatment abolished acute castor oil-induced increase in H
2
O
2
and
free iron levels in gastric and intestine mucosa. Furthermore, both
iron deficiency and iron excess can lead to cellular dysfunction,
since maintaining normal iron homeostasis is crucial (Andrews,
1999). Iron accumulation catalyzed hydroxyl radical-mediated
oxidative injury via its participation in the Fenton pathway. As
previously, proposed for other extracts rich in phenolic com-
pounds as carob (Souli et al., 2013) or grape seeds and skin
extracts (Charradi et al., 2011; Hamlaoui-Gasmi et al., 2011), it is
tempting to speculate that CDE is capable of chelating free iron
and scavenging H
2
O
2
.
5. Conclusion
In conclusion, our data clearly demonstrated the protective
effects of CDE against castor oil-induced diarrhea and fluid
accumulation in rats as well as the implication of oxidative stress
and Fenton pathway in such protection. These findings confirmed
the basis for the use of chamomile extracts in traditional medicine
for the treatment and/or management of digestive system
disorders as diarrhea.
Acknowledgments
Financial support of the Tunisian Ministry of Higher Education
and Scientific Research is gratefully acknowledged. Financial dis-
closures: none declared.
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