This study aimed to evaluate the effects of the treatment with bacuri seed butter (BB) on body weight, growth, body mass index, lipid profile, atherosclerotic indices, and liver function in dyslipidemic hamsters. Freshly weaned, male hamsters were divided into four groups: (1) normal group (NG)—maintained with standard chow (AIN-93G); (2) dyslipidemia group (DG)—maintained with hyperlipidemic chow (AIN-93G modified) throughout the follow-up period; (3) bacuri seed butter 25 mg/kg/day (BB-25); and (4) bacuri seed butter 50 mg/kg/day (BB-50). BB groups (25 and 50 mg/kg/day) were also maintained with hyperlipidemic chow throughout the follow-up period, and the treatment started after 21 days receiving a hyperlipidemic diet to induce hypercholesterolemia and maintained for 28 days. No significant differences in triglycerides and total cholesterol were observed for BB-25 and BB-50 groups when compared with NG and DG groups. On the contrary, BB-25 and BB-50 induced both increase of HDL-c (51.40 ± 1.69 and 51.00 ± 2.34, respectively) and decrease of LDL-c (103.80 ± 6.87 and 100.50 ± 3.95, respectively) when compared with DG (41.00 ± 2.94 and 132.70 ± 9.41, respectively). In addition, BB promoted a reduction in the risk of atherosclerotic disease by decreasing
p
<
0.05
the atherogenic index, coronary artery risk index, and LDL/CT ratio
p
<
0.05
and increasing HDL/CT ratio. On the contrary, no changes were observed in total cholesterol and triglyceride levels or in body weight, growth, body mass index, or liver function parameters. Thus, bacuri seed butter at doses of 25 and 50 mg/kg/day has positive repercussions on the lipid profile, more precisely on plasma HDL-c and LDL-c, and additionally promotes reduction in the risk of atherosclerosis in hamsters.
Leishmaniasis is an infectious disease that affects millions of people worldwide, making the search essential for more accessible treatments. The species Platonia insignis Mart. (Clusiaceae) has been extensively studied and has gained prominence for its pharmacological potential. The objective of this work was to evaluate the antileishmania activity, cytotoxic effect and activation patterns of macrophages of hydroalcoholic extract (EHPi), ethyl acetate fractions (FAcOEt) and morelloflavone/volkensiflavone mixture (MB) from P. insignis flowers. EHPi, FAcOEt and MB demonstrated concentration-dependent antileishmania activity, with inhibition of parasite growth in all analyzed concentrations. EHPi exhibited maximum effect at 800 μg/mL, while FAcOEt and MB reduced the growth of the parasite by 94.62% at 800 μg/mL. EHPi, FAcOEt and MB showed low cytotoxic effects for macrophages at 81.78, 159.67 and 134.28 μg/mL, respectively. EHPi (11.25 µg/mL), FAcOEt (11.25 and 22.5 µg/mL) and MB (22.5 µg/mL) characterized the increase in lysosomal activity, suggesting a possible modulating effect. These findings open for the application of flowers from a P. insignis flowers and biflavones mixture thereof in the promising treatment of leishmaniasis.
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