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Perspective
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Effect of Croton penduliflorus on Intestinal Enzymes Activities |
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Idress Hamad Attitalla
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ABSTRACT
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Nutrients are the chemical substances required for proper metabolism, they
protect the body from number of disease probably via preventing the damages
to lipids, proteins, DNA, amino acids etc. (Fang et al.,
2002). These can act as antioxidants and should be included in diet to ensure
good health; some of these nutrients are arginine, citrulline, phenols, selenium,
zinc, vitamins etc. Nutrients play an essential role in immunity; they start
the immunity responses and end them appropriately after completing the task
(Percival, 2009, 2011; Soliman
and El-Shenawy, 2003). As gamma delta T cells are important part of first
line defense action against pathogens, their activity enhances when the plant-derived
nutrients are used. These nutrients also reduce the flu and cold severity, hence
played multiple roles in enhancing immunity. But improper nutrition results
in obesity and several cognitive disorders, they can be treated through properly
following the nutrition rules (Morris, 2011). Hence a
good nutrition is necessary to well maintain the body health. Usually the metabolism
of lipids and proteins changes with age; oxidative stress increases and enzymes
activity declines in elders (Lawton et al., 2008).
The decreased enzyme activity may have caused these changes in metabolism and
lowered the availability of energy. As in mice various gut enzymes e.g., lactase,
sucrase, and maltase were less active in mature gut, these activities decreased
with the age of gut (Batcic et al., 2008). This
can affect the energy transduction in rats as these enzymes metabolize various
disaccharides of body. These enzymatic activities are dependent on the type
of nutrition and their lower activity can cause severe gastrointestinal disease
in infants (Thymann et al., 2009). The preterm
pigs (model for human diseases) fed with maltodextrin have lower activities
of lactase, maltase and aminopeptidase enzymes, which increases the chances
of gastrointestinal disorder. Moreover bad nutrition (high fat) during pregnancy
lowers the activity of disaccharidase in intestine associated with increased
membrane permeability, which results in the birth of fatty infants (Fak
et al., 2011). This fat diet also results in increased inflammation
of infants due to high production of acute-phase proteins and haptoglobin. As
nutrition plays a major role in determining the health status, hence nutritional
plans should be properly planned, necessarily at critical stages of growth.
Plants are rich source of antioxidants which can act as enzyme regulators and
can increase or decrease enzymes activity to protect the body from metabolic
imbalance (Baranisrinivasan et al., 2009). According
to Oyesola et al. (2009) Croton penduliflorus
implementation was helpful in maintaining the guts enzymatic activities
during pregnancy. Its methanolic extracts (550 mg kg-1 b.wt.) upon
oral induction reduced the sucrase and lactase activity in non pregnant rats
gut, while lactase activity remained unchanged. Whereas in pregnant rats it
showed a different mode of action; it regulated the enzymes activity differently
at different stages of pregnancy. As its implementation at early and later stages
reduced the sucrase activity with increased maltase and lactase activity, when
compared to non plant treated pregnant animals. While, at mid stage these extracts
increased the sucrase and maltase activity with reduced lactase activity. These
enzymatic activities in particular stage were different from non plant treated
animals of relative stage pregnancy. Throughout pregnancy the enzymes activities
were increased, but the rate of increment was different at different stage.
These different activities may be due to varying food digestion requirements
and plant derived increased or decreased enzymatic activities maintained these
digestions. These regulatory effects enhanced the gut growth as high enzymatic
activities were the characteristics of growing gut. Moreover total protein and
albumin contents were changed during pregnancy and high protein contents were
observed at mid stage while highest albumin contents were observable during
late stage. Plants extracts changed these concentrations and in non pregnant
rats it decreased the protein levels with unchanged albumin contents. While
in pregnant rats these extracts caused a significant increase in protein contents
during late stage and albumin concentration were raised during early and mid
stages. Thus C. penduliflorus methanolic extracts showed the enzymes,
proteins and albumin regulatory activity to modulate the metabolism of rats,
associated with increased growth of intestine. Its increased enzymatic activities
might be responsible for the increased nutrient availability to rats and fetuses.
Nutrients play a crucial role in proper functioning of bodys metabolism;
they are important regulators of immunity and growth. Some of these nutrients
are obtained from food, which help in determining the healthy and non healthy
condition of an individual. As poor nourishment severely affects the health
of newborn and one can get various ailments. Plants being the part of nutrition
serve as protective shield of human body and regulate the enzymes activity (Karim
et al., 2011; Sohail et al., 2011).
As Oyesola et al. (2009) through their experiments
proposed that C. penduliflorus could act as regulator of gut enzymes.
Its application increased the enzymes levels in pregnant rats depending of the
stage of pregnancy, which could help in maintaining the nutrient supply to rats
and fetuses. More research on C. penduliflorus caused enzyme regulation
will help in understanding its role in pregnant rats.
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