Anti-fatigue Effects of Polyphenols Extracted from Areca Catechu L. Husk and Determination of the Main Components by High Performance Capillary Electrophoresis

This study explored the antioxidant potential and anti-fatigue effects of polyphenols extracted from Areca Catechu L. husk (AHP). Radicals scavenging activities and reducing power were determined to evaluate the antioxidant potentials in vitro and a weight loaded forced swimming test (WFST) was used to estimate the anti-fatigue effect. The main components of AHP were analyzed by HPCE at last. The AHP possessed considerable antioxidant effects on scavenging DPPH, ABTS radicals and reducing power. All the tested bio parameters of the mice which received the high dose of AHP (20 mg/kg) were improved. The AHP was mainly composed of (–)-epicatechin, (+)-catechin, keampferol, naringenin, ferulic acid and chromogenic acid. These results suggest that the AHP can be a promising source as a natural antioxidant and anti-fatigue material for the use in functional foods even medicines. Introduction Physical fatigue, mainly caused by excessive exercise, is an important factor affecting bodily action, and often results in physical disorders (Tanaka et al. 2008). According to various reported theories, the most accepted one is excessive production of reactive oxygen species (ROS), as they are highly reactive particles, which can result in cytotoxicity (Chi et al. 2015). Compared to synthetic drugs, natural products not simply can do well on improving human’s physical performance against fatigue, but also have a few side effects (Kim et al. 2002). Thus, people are eager to seek natural effective compounds to ease fatigue, such as phenolic extract (Wu et al. 2013). Phenolic compounds play crucially in areca nut bioactivities including anti-mutagenic (Nagabhushan et al. 1998) and anti-aging activities (Lee et al. 2001). However, there are a few reports about anti-fatigue activities of phenolics from areca nut. In order to achieve a firm conclusion, we extracted AHP and determined its antioxidant activities in vitro and anti-fatigue effects in vivo. Total phenolic content of the AHP was measured and the phenolic components of the purified extraction were identified. Materials and Methods All phenolic standards were purchased from National Institutes for Food and Drug Control (Beijing, China). All the chemicals of analytical grade were purchased from Sigma-Aldrich Co. LLC.. Nanjing Jiancheng Bioengineering Institute (Nanjing, China) provided all the paid test kits used in this study. Experimental water was ultra-purified. Author for correspondence: <[email protected]>. Institute of Tropical Bioscience and Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences, 571101, Haikou, China. College of Food Science, Jiangnan University, 214122, Lihu Avenue, Wuxi, China.