Summary: | The aim of this work was the hydrolysis of naringin towards naringenin with immobilized naringinase and the evaluation of their anti-inflammatory activity. An acute local inflammation model (rat paw edema induced by X-carrageenan) was chosen to evaluate the contribution of antioxidant properties to a possible anti-inflammatory effect. Grapefruit juice was processed with naringinase immobilized in k-carrageenan (2%) beads (approximate to 3 mm). A 95% naringin conversion in grapefruit juice was obtained with immobilized naringinase (1000 mg L-1), with an activity of 19.5 mg mL(-1) min(-1) and the formation of 215 mg L-1 of naringenin. Ascorbic acid and indometacine were used as positive anti-inflammatory controls. All results were analysed using ANOVA with Dunnett's Post-test. The results show that rats (n = 9) pre-treated with a solution of naringin, rats (n = 9) pre-treated with a solution of naringenin (in concentrations equal as in grapefruit juice) and rats (n = 9) treated with a solution of naringenin and naringin, revealed a significant reduction on edema formation, 6h after X-carrageenan injection. Naringenin demonstrated a high in vivo anti-inflammatory activity, only 8% of paw edema (p0.001) was observed in rats pre-treated with a solution of naringenin. Comparability studies, in rats administered orally with grapefruit juice (before and after processing), showed that enzymatic processing did not affect the anti-inflammatory properties of the juice. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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