In vivo effect of anthocyanin extract oral administration on rat serum antioxidant activity

Antocianins are water-soluble vacuolar pigments belonging to the group of flavonoids, which are most commonly known for their antioxidant activity. The aim of this work was to study the in vivo effects of the oral administration of an anthocianin extract (obtained by black grape skin) on rat serum antioxidant activity. Moreover, the possible protective action of the extract administration against oxidative stress induced by exposure of the animals to CCl4 was also addressed. Preliminary experiments with Ussing chamber mounted intestine allowed to exclude any toxicity of the extracts for the gastrointestinal tract of the animals. The extract, whose in vitro activity was determined by ORAC (Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity) method, was daily orally administrated to rats for two weeks. Five groups of rats were utilized: a not treated group, a group treated with a black grape extract, a group challenged with CCl4 , powerful oxidizing agent, one treated with the extract black grape and CCl4, and finally a group treated with the CCl4 vehicle. The antioxidant activity was determined by ORAC method on deproteinized serum. The results show that the administration of the antocyanin extract of black grape increased the antioxidant activity of the blood and in addition was able to prevent the decrease in the blood antioxidant activity observed during the CCl4 treatment., suggesting an antioxidant protective action of the antocyanin extract against an induced oxidative stress.