Effect of pomegranate juice pre-treatment on the transport of carbamazepine across rat intestine

BACKGROUND AND THE PURPOSE OF THE STUDY Many drug substances along with a variety of naturally occurring dietary or herbal components interact with the CYP enzyme system. The present study was aimed to investigate the effect of pomegranate juice pre-treatment on the transport of carbamazepine across the rat intestine. METHODS The transport of carbamazepine across different parts of rat intestine was studied by everted and non-everted sac methods. The control and pomegranate juice (10 ml Kg(-1) for 7 days) pre-treated rats were sacrificed and isolated the intestine. The sacs of intestine were prepared, treated with carbamazepine solution and then placed in dulbeccos buffer. Samples were collected periodically and the drug content was estimated using HPLC. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION The results show that there was a significant (p<0.05) difference in the transport of carbamazepine from the intestinal sacs of pretreated with pomegranate juice and control. It seems that pomegranate juice might have induced CYP3A4 enzymes and hence drug is extensively metabolized.