Lotus Seedpod Proanthocyanidins Protect Against Light-Induced Retinal Damage via Antioxidative Stress, Anti-Apoptosis, and Neuroprotective Effects

Phytochemicals, biological activity, and industrial application of lotus seedpod (Receptaculum Nelumbinis): A review

“…Phytochemicals from lotus seedpods have been determined to reveal a variety of biological activities, including ameliorating cognitive impairment ( 10 – 12 , 52 – 61 ), antioxidation ( 4 , 5 , 62 – 64 ), antibacterial ( 15 – 17 , 65 ), anti-glycative ( 7 , 18 , 19 ), neuroprotection ( 48 , 66 ), anti-tyrosinase ( 46 , 47 ), retinal protection ( 6 ), anti-insomnia ( 67 ), anti-cancer ( 68 ), immunomodulatory ( 69 ), ameliorating intestinal injury ( 70 ), anti-diabetes ( 20 ), regulating lipid homeostasis ( 38 ), anti-inflammatory ( 71 ) and α-glucosidase inhibitory ( 4 ) activities.…”

“…Recently, proanthocyanidin is one of the mostly investigated phytochemicals from lotus seedpods. They have been implied to possess ameliorating cognitive impairment ( 11 , 12 , 52 – 61 ), antioxidation ( 62 – 64 ), neuroprotection ( 10 , 48 , 66 ), retinal protection ( 6 ), anti-insomnia ( 67 ), anti-cancer ( 68 ) and immunomodulatory ( 69 ) activities, as displayed in Figure 3B and Supplementary Table 1 .…”

“…Animal experiment has demonstrated that proanthocyanidins of lotus seedpods reflected retinal protection against light exposure-induced rats through anti-oxidative stress, anti-apoptosis and neuroprotective effects, displaying as improving activities of SOD and GPX and mRNA and protein expressions of Bcl-2, and lowering retinal apoptosis, mRNA expressions of caspase-3, p53 and Bax, and protein expressions of pro-caspase-3, cleaved caspase-3, p53 and Bax ( 6 ). The proanthocyanidins exerted anti-insomnia effect to rats by regulating NO/ADMA/DDAH pathway, showing as increasing levels of 5-HT, GABA and NO, and protein and mRNA expressions of DDAH1, DDAH2 and nNOS, and decreasing levels of NE, Glu, ADMA and 8-isoprostane, in brain ( 67 ).…”

“…In addition, there are some connects between the different bioactivities of proanthocyanidins from lotus seedpods. The retinal protection of proanthocyanidins against light exposure-induced rats was realized partly through their antioxidation and neuroprotection activities ( 6 ). Ameliorating cognitive impairment action of proanthocyanidins was reported to be related to their antioxidation effects in D - galactose-, scopolamine-, alcohol and scopolamine, senescence-accelerated or extremely low frequency electromagnetic field exposure-induced mice ( 12 , 52 – 54 , 56 , 61 ) as well as cognitively impaired aged rats ( 58 ).…”

“…In the past decades, more and more attention has been paid to phytochemicals, biological activity and industrial application of lotus seedpods. A variety of phytochemicals have been derived and identified from lotus seedpods, including proanthocyanidins ( 6 ), oligomeric procyanidins ( 7 ), polyphenols ( 8 ), flavonoids and others ( 9 ). Numerous studies have demonstrated that extracts and phytochemicals of lotus seedpods possessed various biological activities, such as ameliorating cognitive impairment ( 10 – 12 ), antioxidation ( 8 , 9 , 13 , 14 ), antibacterial ( 15 – 17 ), anti-glycative ( 7 , 18 , 19 ) and anti-diabetes ( 20 ).…”