Antihypertensive effect of allicin in dexamethasone-induced hypertensive rats

BACKGROUND: Glucocorticoid is among the most commonly prescribed medicine. Unfortunately, Excess glucocorticoid level leads hypertension in 80–90% patients. Garlic (Allium sativum) has been used since ancient times and even nowadays as a part of popular medicine for various ailments and physiological disorders. Hence this study was undertaken to investigate the antihypertensive activity of allicin in dexamethasone induced hypertension in wistar rats. METHODS: The animals were randomly divided into four groups comprising of six rats per group. Hypertension was induced by subcutaneous injection of dexamethasone (10 μg/rat/day) in hypertensive rats. Two hypertensive group animals were treated with nicorandil (6 mg/kg/day, po) and allicin (8 mg/kg/day, po) respectively for 8 weeks. While systolic blood pressure (SBP) was measured by the tail-cuff method weekly up to 8 weeks. RESULTS: Dexamethasone treatment resulted in significant increase in SBP while allicin treatment significantly decreases the SBP. Thus, this study confirmed that allicin treatment for 8 weeks partially reverse dexamethasone induced hypertension in rats. Allicin treatment also attenuated dexamethasone-induced anorexia and loss of total body weight. CONCLUSION: This result suggests antihypertensive effects of allicin in dexamethasone induced hypertension. However, further studies are needed to explore the detailed mechanism of antihypertensive effect of allicin.