Chemical composition of tualang honey and its effect on the lung surfactants and histology of male rats exposed to cigarette smoke

Abstract

This study reported the chemical composition of Tualang honey and its effect on the lung surfactants and histology of male rats exposed to cigarette smoke. Thirty-two adult male Sprague-Dawley rats were used and they were randomly divided into 4 groups of eight rats each: control, honey-treated (Honey), cigarette smoke-exposed (CS) and honey-treated plus CS (Honey+CS). Rats in control and CS groups received distilled water (0.5 mL/day) while rats in Honey and Honey+CS groups received honey (1.2 g/kg body weight/day) by oral gavage. Furthermore, rats in CS and Honey+CS groups were exposed to CS in a chamber for 8 minutes (3 times/day). Exposure of rats to cigarette smoke significantly altered their phosphatidyl choline/ phosphatidyl glycerol (PC/PG) ratio but not their surfactant protein A levels with increased number of alveolar macrophage containing carbon particles. Administration of Tualang honey to CS exposed rats resulted in modulation of most of these parameters and which results were coroborrated by histology. The colour intenstity, pH and moisture content of the honey were obtained as 272.75 mili-absorbance unit, 3.43 and 17.38%, respectively. Screening for phenolic compounds in Tualang honey using High Performance Thin Layer Chromatography showed the presence of 18 compounds while only five were identified which possessed strong in vitro antioxidant capacity as seen from their 2,2,diphenyl-1-picryl hydrazyl radical scavenging ability. The study showed the promising potentials of Tualung honey in protecting lung surfactants from the deleterious action of cigarette smoke which may be associated with its antioxidant phenolic compounds.