Pretreatment Effect of Alcoholic Olive Leaf Extract on Oxidative and Antioxidative Enzymes Status in Ovariectomized Rats

Menopause with oxidative imbalance causes metabolic disorders. These disorders are involved in the pathogenesis of various diseases. Olive leaf is a rich source of phenolic compounds that are biologically active and have better antioxidant activity, anti-inflammatory and radical scavenging effect. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of olive leaf extract on antioxidant activity of liver tissue in ovariectomized rats.
In this study, 21 male Wistar rats weighting 220 ± 20 g were randomly selected and were divided into three groups (n = 7): 1) control group (healthy animals), 2) OVX group (ovaries removed by surgery) and 3) OVX-OLE group (ovaries removed and received olive leaf extract). The third group of animals received olive leaf extract for 30 days in dose of 100 mg/kg orally and through gavages. At the end of the study, samples of liver tissue were taken and the activities of super oxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione peroxidase (GPX), malondialdehyde (MDA) and catalase were measured.
The results showed that ovariectomy reduced rates of SOD (P = 0.001), GPX (P = 0.003) and catalase (P = 0.001) significantly compared to controls. It was also found that the average level of MDA in OVX group than the OVX-OLE and control group was significantly higher (P = 0.001).
This study showed that oral administration of olive leaf can increase the activity of antioxidant enzymes in the liver tissue.