The Effect of Plantago Major and Allopurinol Supplementation on Some Purine Nucleotide Indicators and White Blood Cells of Wrestlers after a Session of Exhausting Circuit Training

Many herbal supplements have been proposed to increase athletic performance and improve the immune system of athletes. This study aims at comparing the herbal supplement of Plantago major seeds and allopurinol on xanthine, uric acid and some components of leukocytes in wrestlers after an intense exercise. In this semi-experimental study, 12 college wrestlers participated in this study with mean and standard deviation and age range 18.7 ±3.65 years old and BMI 24.64 ± 3.82 kg/m2. These subjects consumed 300 mg of allopurinol or 5 g of Plantago major seed and placebo every day for five days before each test. Blood samples were collected for measuring before and immediately after a vigorous training and sent to the laboratory. Normal data was analyzed using analysis of variance for repeated measures and Banferroni post hoc test at the significance level of 0.05. The present study showed that one session of exhausted circuit–wrestling on xanthine, uric acid, white blood cells, neutrophils, lymphocytes and monocytes had a significant effect and there was no significant difference between various groups serum baseline levels after receiving five days of supplementation and there was a significant difference in the increase of white blood cells after allopurinol supplementation compared to the control group in response to exercise (P = 0.022), but no significant difference was observed in other variables in response to exercise. Allopurinol probably reduces free radicals and causes less excretion of purines, but it seems that this supplement will increase white blood cells and neutrophils after vigorous activities.