Santi Prasad Sinha Babu (1), Debapriya Sarkar (2), Naba Kumar Ghosh (1),
Arpita Saha (1), Nirmal Chandra Sukul (1) and Shelley Bhattacharya (2)
(1) Parasitology Laboratory, (2) Environmental Toxicology Laboratory,
Department of Zoology, Visva-Bharati University, Santiniketan- 731 235,
West Bengal, India
Abstract: Acaciaside A and B, two acylated triterpenoid bisglycosides
isolated from the funicles of Acacia auriculiformis, are known to have antihelmintic
activity. Since the saponins contain a conjugated unsaturated system that
is highly susceptible to peroxidation, we investigated the interaction of
saponins and membrane using rat liver microsomes as our model. Microsomal
membranes were incubated with saponins at 30C for 2 hr. Following incubation,
lipid peroxidation was measured in terms of malondialdehyde and conjugated
diene. Our results showed that incubation of microsomal membranes with saponins
increased both malondialdehyde and conjugated diene. The results suggest
that in our model, saponins enhance the membrane lipid peroxidation.
Keywords: Saponin, Membrane damage, Lipid peroxidation