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Rutin (3, 3 ′ , 4 ′ , 5, 7-pentahydrohyflavone-3-rhamnoglucoside) is a flavonoid of the flavonol type. Rutin is found in many plants and is also an important dietary constituent of food and plant-based beverages. Rutin has several pharmacological properties including antioxidant and cardioprotective activities. Also, it was identified that rutin is the major low-density lipoprotein (LDL) antioxidant compound of mulberry in an in vitro study. The effects of rutin were tested by using it as a supplement in a high-cholesterol diet. Male rats were fed a high-cholesterol diet (1 ml/100 g) for 4 weeks with rutin (10 or 100 mg/kg) or rutin 100 mg/kg and lovastatin supplementation to study the hypocholesterolaemic effects of rutin on plasma lipid levels, hepatic enzyme activity, and liver tissue. Feeding the animals a high-cholesterol diet resulted in marked hypercholesterolaemia and increased the serum level of LDL cholesterol (LDL-C). Rutin (at 100 mg/kg) alone or in combination with lovastatin significantly reduced the levels of total cholesterol, and LDL-C and also markedly decreased liver enzymes and weight in animals with a high-cholesterol diet. Our findings show that 100 mg/kg of rutin alone or with lovastatin supplementation lowered liver weight and enzymes as well as plasma total cholesterol and LDL. The hepatic histopathological results reflect the correlation of rutin and lovastatin combination with both liver weight and the levels of plasma total cholesterol and LDL-C. These results indicate that rutin in combination with lovastatin has increased anti-hypercholesterolaemic effects in an animal model.

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Flavonoids are important constituents of food and beverages and have several neuropharmacological activities. Many of these compounds are ligands for c-aminobutyric acid type A receptors in the central nervous system. This study aimed to investigate the anticonvulsant effects of intracerebroventricularly administered vitexin (5, 7, 4-trihydroxyflavone-8-glucoside), a flavonoid found in plants, in rats treated with pentylenetetrazole (90 mg ⁄ kg, intraperitoneally) and to clarify the underlying mechanism. Vitexin (100 and 200 lM, i.c.v) affected minimal clonic seizures and generalized tonic-clonic seizures induced by pentylenetetrazole by increasing the seizure onset time. Pretreatment with flumazenil suppressed the anticonvulsant effects of vitexin during the onset of both the seizures. These results indicate that vitexin has anticonvulsant effects in the brain, possibly through interaction at the benzodiazepine site of the c-aminobutyric acid type A receptor complex.

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