β –Carotene, A Potent provitamin A Carotenoids in the Amelioration of the Effects of Heroin

β-Carotene, a potent provitamin A carotenoid having multifaceted physiological activities, could ameliorate the different types of abnormal behaviour in rats after the administration of heroin. The administration of different doses of heroin, viz LD25, LD50 showed various degrees of abnormal conditions and behaviours such as depletion of body weight, retinol reserve, decrease of water intake, piloerection, drowsiness, wet shakes, restlessness and jumping etc. β-carotene accounts for the amelioration of the above conditions and abnormal behaviour to a certain extent along with restoration of the retinol level in the liver of albino rats receiving heroin of different doses. *Corresponding author: U.C.Goswami, Principal Investigator of the Retinoids Research Scheme, Guwahati University, Guwahati, Assam, India, E-mail: [email protected] Received May 27, 2012; Accepted June 27, 2012; Published July 02, 2012 Citation: Saha PK, Goswami UC, Dutta SK (2012) β –Carotene, A Potent provitamin A Carotenoids in the Amelioration of the Effects of Heroin. Vitam Trace Elem 1:107. doi:10.4172/2167-0390.1000107 Copyright: © 2012 Saha PK, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.