Shirish P. Jain, Sapana P. Jain, Vivekkumar K. Redasani, Mohan G. Kalaskar
The present investigation deals with the study of protective effect of Ginkgo biloba (GB) aqueous dried leaf extract on ethanol-induced impairment of immune responses. The ethanol treated (2 g/kg, 20% w/v p.o.), rats concurrently received either the dried leaf extracts of Ginkgo biloba (300 mg/kg each, orally) or a combination of vitamin C and E (100 mg/kg each, orally) or vehicle for the same period. The various parameters like phagocytosis, total leukocyte count (TLC), humoral and cell-mediated immune responses, lipid peroxidation (LPO), reduced glutathione (GSH) content, superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT) activities were assessed. Chronic administration of ethanol decreased the humoral and cell-mediated immune response, phagocytosis, phagocytosis index, TLC, GSH, CAT and SOD activities and increases the LPO. These influences of ethanol were prevented by concurrent daily administration of extract and the effect was comparable with that of the combination of vitamin C and E. The ethanol-induced immunosupression is due to oxidative stress and Ginkgo biloba can prevent the same by virtue of its antioxidant property.
