a study on the anti-oxidant effects of eugenol on retinoic acid toxicity in white mice

introduction: retinoic acid (ra), one of the synthetic vitamin a derivative which has been frequently used as a drug to treat face acne, is know to have specific side effects on the testis, liver, spleen and etc. therefore, we have tried to find a compound which would decrease its side effects. eugenol is a compound extracted from clove tree. it has anti-anaphylactic, anti-inflammation, antiseptic properties and inhibits lipid peroxidation by acting as a chain breaking antioxidant. in trying to find an antagonistic angent for ra, we have used eugenol. material and methods: in this research, we have chosen 6 weeks old male mice of nmri strain weighting 26?2 grams. the mice were divided into five experimental groups. the first group were fed only with normal diet (as control)1, but the other four groups were fed with normal diet plus olive oil (as solvent) 2, (retionic acid)3, (eugenol) 4 and (eugenol+retinoic acid) 5. we administered 100 mg/kg of eugenol and 30 mg/kg of retionic acid for eight days. following dissection of mice and collection blood various parameters including cholesterol. triglyceride, ldh and alp were analyzed. results: results obtained from these experiment indicated that ra increased the amount of cholesterol and triglyceride by 23.3% (p<0.001) and 13.4% (p<0.01) respectively compared with the control group. similarly, the amount of ldh and alp activity enzymes occuring in blood plasma increased by 25.8% & 42.4% (p<0.001) respectively compared with solvent group (control). dietary uptake of eugenol has decreased the amount of cholesterol and triglyceride by 15.9% (p<0.001) and 12.3% (p<0.01) respectively. mice were adminstered with dietary eugenol have demonestered a marked decreased in ldh and alp activities by 13.7% (p<0.01) and 16.4% (p<0.05) respectively. conclusion: it was obsereved that the cytotoxicity of retionic acid had been decreased markedly by eugenol. therefore, the antioxidant role of eugenol can decrease the side effects of retionic acid. it can be concluded that eugenol can be used to alleviate side effect of ra.