Anti-fatigue Effect Of Icariin

With the quickening rhythm of social life and increasingly fierce competition, people always stay in tension and feel abnormal fatigue or physical strength overdraft. The World Health Organization (WHO) survey has shown that about75percent of people in the world are in the sub-health state, while fatigue is the most common form of sub-health state. When the body is exposed to fatigue and lacks timely mitigation, there will be a series of physiological and biochemical changes that decrease the body’s functions and hurt organs seriously. Traditional Chinese medicine, characterized by its safety, efficacy and less side effects, plays an important role in alleviating and removing fatigue. Research and development of new anti-fatigue drugs which have good curative effects and few side effects have a huge application prospect and potential for market development.As a traditional Chinese herbal medicine, Epimedium is a member of the barberry family (Berberidaceae) of herbaceous perennials. At present, there are about59species in the world. China is the main distribution area of Epimedium in which there are23species. Epimedium has a great variety of breeds and wide distribution. Icariin (ICA) is the main active ingredient of Epimedium. It has many pharmacological functions such as immunological function modulation, hormone regulation, cardiovascular function improvement, anti-virus and anti-tumor activities. However, there is no systematic study on the anti-fatigue function of ICA. According to these considerations, we conducted the following researches:To investigate the effect of ICA on fatigue resistance and provide scientific evidence for the development of anti-fatigue drug. Swimming-induced injury model was adopted to investigate the suitable dose of ICA on fatigue resistance in mice. The mice in ICA-supplemented groups were intragastric administrated with different doses of ICA. The mice in control group were intragastric administrated with Ihe same volume of sodium carboxymethylcellulose for12days. After exhausted swimming and recovering for24hours, the mice were executed, the serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate transaminase (AST), malonaldehyde/malondialdehyde (MDA), blood urea nitrogen (BUN) and serum glucose (SG) were determined with ultramicro micro hole plate spectrophotometer, and the isozymes of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) were detected with polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE). Then, with this exhaustive swimming-induced fatigue model, the ALT, AST, MDA, BUN and SG in blood serum, superoxide dismutase (SOD), MDA and glycogen in liver, SOD, MDA and glycogen in muscle, SOD, MDA in heart, SOD, MDA in brain were detected. Moreover, the electro-phoresis of LDH in blood serum, liver, muscle, heart and brain were analysed to explore the mechanism of physical performance promotion.The results were as follows:1. Comparing with the control group, the endurance time of exhausted swimming was apparently lengthened, the activities of ALT and AST, the content of MDA and BUN, and the total activity of LDH isozymes were decreased significantly in the mice of ICA middle-dose group, no significant differences were found in SG content, indicating that the middle-dose of ICA has fairly strong function of anti-fatigue.2. ICA can obviously prolong the endurance time of exhausted swimming, and the ratio was18.30%.3. ICA can reduce the level of ALT, AST, MDA and BUN at exhaustion, recovery, and accelerate the recovery of body.4. ICA can raise SOD activity in liver, muscle, heart and brain of rested and exhaustive exercise mice, and reduce MDA level at rest, exhaustion and recovery state.5. ICA can inhibit the excessive reduction of glocose, glycogen in liver and muscle at exhaustion, and accelerate the recovery of glocose and glycogen.6. The results of LDH electrophoresis of blood serum, liver, muscle, heart and brain showed that ICA can change LDH to the right direction for promoting the body’s motor function, protecting and accelerating the recovery of body in exercise.In conclusion, ICA can relieve the oxidative damage of organs, regulate body’s metabolism, to improve the athletic ability of mice and promote their rapid recovery from fatigue. However, whether ICA can be developed and used as anti-fatigue drug deserves further research.