Protective effect of a hydroethanolic extract from Bowdichia virgilioides on muscular damage and oxidative stress caused by strenuous resistance training in rats

Background: natural antioxidants can reduce oxidative damage caused by high-intensity resistance training (rt). we investigated the in vitro antioxidant potential of hydroethanolic extract (hee) from bowdichia virgilioides on muscular damage and oxidative stress in rats subjected to high-intensity rt. methods: thirty-two male wistar rats were divided into four experimental groups: 1) control group (cg),oral administration (p.o.) of vehicle,2) trained group (tg),vehicle-treated with rt; 3) b. virgilioides untrained group (bvg),treated with b. virgilioides hee (200 mg/kg p.o.); and 4) trained b. virgilioides group (tbvg),treated with b. virgiliodes hee (200 mg/kg p.o.). all animals were habituated to the training apparatus for 1 week. ct and tbvg animals were subjected to the training protocol,which consisted of three sets of 10 repetitions with 75% of the load established using the one-repetition maximum,for four weeks. cg and bvg animals were manipulated and fixed to the apparatus three times a week with no load. treatment with b. virgilioides hee or vehicle treatment was initiated after 25 days of rt (5 days; one dose per day). at the end of the experiments,plasmatic and gastrocnemius samples from all groups were obtained for the assessment of lipid peroxidation and creatine kinase activity. results: compared to tg rats,tbvg rats showed decreases in plasma and gastrocnemius tissue lipid peroxidation by 55.68% (p <0.0001) and 66.61% (p <0.0012),respectively. further,compared to tg rats tbvg rats showed decreases in plasma and gastrocnemius tissue oxidative stress by 62.83% (p <0.0005) and 54.97% (p <0.0197),respectively. conclusions: b. virgilioides hee treatment reduced markers of oxidative stress caused by high-intensity rt. further,hee treatment during training significantly reduced the markers of tissue damage. © 2014 dos santos et al.