Effect of Onion Flesh or Peel Feeding on Antioxidative Capacity in 16-Month-old Rats Fed High Iron Diet

Recently, epidemiological evidence has raised concerns that moderate elevation in body iron stores may increase oxidative stress and the risk of cardiovascular disease and cancer. Onion flesh or peel contains antioxidant such as flavonoids and alk(en)ylcysteine sulphoxides. This study was conducted to examine the effect of onion flesh or peel feeding on antioxidative capacity in aged rats supplemented with high dietary iron. Thirty-two Sprague-Dawley male 16-month-old rats weighing $618{\pm}6g$ were acclimated for 10 days with medium-iron diet (35ppm in diet), and blocked into 4 groups according to their body weights and raised for 3 months on either control diets (adequate iron-35ppm or high iron-350ppm) or experimental diets containing onion flesh/peel (5% w/w in diet) with high iron (350ppm). Rats fed high iron-onion peel diet had significantly high quercetin and isorhamnetin levels in plasma whereas rats fed high iron-onion flesh diet did not show. Plasma TBARS level was lowered by onion flesh or peel diet with high iron supplementation. However, there was no significant difference in cellular DNA damage in brain and kidney tissue among all experimental groups. We concluded that high iron diet (10 times higher than requirement) tend to increase oxidative stress and it is plausible that onion flesh or peel feeding enhances antioxidative capacity in the elderly even with iron supplementation.

양파 육질 및 껍질의 섭취가 고철분식이를 공급한 노령흰쥐의 항산화능에 미치는 영향