Biomedicine

Abstract

Introduction and Aim: Preeclampsia (PE), a condition associated with incomplete trophoblast invasion leads to redox status alteration. Effective strategies for the management of PE without any side effects are lacking, and the available synthetic drugs seem to cause harmful effects to mother and fetus. Herbal supplements may help to overcome the clinical manifestations of PE, need of the hour. Piper betle (PB) leaf contains several biologically active compounds with protective effects. However, the effect of PB for the treatment of hypertensive disorder like preeclampsia is seldom explored. Extracts of betle leaf-BLE (aqueous-ABLE, PBS-PBLE, saliva-SBLE, diastase-DBLE) are utilized to examine its effect on redox changes in placental trophoblast. Materials and Methods: Three different concentrations of BLE were used to evaluate the optimal concentration having potent radical scavenging activity. Following this, incubation time exhibiting maximum efficiency was standardized by analyzing the trophoblast viability upon incubation with BLEs at the optimum concentration of 1mg/mL. Results: All the extracts of BL (1mg/mL/1h) showed variations in their radical scavenging activity in the order as follows SBLE>DBLE> PBLE>ABLE. It inferred that SBLE is more efficient in modulating redox status in preeclamptic placental trophoblast which is followed by DBLE, may be due to the presence of antioxidants in saliva. Conclusion: Reveals that chewing of the betle leaf during pregnancy facilitates a significant change in the oxidants-antioxidants status in the trophoblast. Hence dietary supplementation of BL orally in particular by chewing might effectively render beneficiary effect in the management of oxidative stress and also help to overcome the other related complications of PE.