Pumpkin ( Cucurbita moschata ) Fruit Extract Improves Physical Fatigue and Exercise Performance in Mice

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Abstract

Pumpkin ( Cucurbita moschata) is a popular and nutritious vegetable consumed worldwide. The overall purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of C. moschata fruit extract (CME) on anti-fatigue and ergogenic functions following physiological challenges. Male ICR mice from four groups designated vehicle, CME-50, CME-100 and CME-250, respectively (n = 8 per group in each test) were orally administered CME for 14 days at 0, 50, 100 and 250 mg/kg/day. The anti-fatigue activity and exercise performance were evaluated using exhaustive swimming time, forelimb grip strength, as well as levels of plasma lactate, ammonia, glucose, and creatine kinase after an acute swimming exercise. The resting muscular and hepatic glycogen was also analyzed after 14-day supplementation with CME. Trend analysis revealed that CME treatments increased grip strength. CME dose-dependently increased 5% body weight loaded swimming time, blood glucose, and muscular and hepatic glycogen levels. CME dose-dependently decreased plasma lactate and ammonia levels and creatine kinase activity after a 15-min swimming test. The mechanism was relevant to the increase in energy storage (as glycogen) and release (as blood glucose), and the decrease of plasma levels of lactate, ammonia, and creatine kinase. Therefore, CME may be potential for the pharmacological effect of anti-fatigue.

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Cancer Chemoprevention by Caroteno

Takuji Tanaka, Masahito Shnimizu, Hisataka Moriwaki (2012)

Carotenoids are natural fat-soluble pigments that provide bright coloration to plants and animals. Dietary intake of carotenoids is inversely associated with the risk of a variety of cancers in different tissues. Preclinical studies have shown that some carotenoids have potent antitumor effects both in vitro and in vivo, suggesting potential preventive and/or therapeutic roles for the compounds. Since chemoprevention is one of the most important strategies in the control of cancer development, molecular mechanism-based cancer chemoprevention using carotenoids seems to be an attractive approach. Various carotenoids, such as β-carotene, α-carotene, lycopene, lutein, zeaxanthin, β-cryptoxanthin, fucoxanthin, canthaxanthin and astaxanthin, have been proven to have anti-carcinogenic activity in several tissues, although high doses of β-carotene failed to exhibit chemopreventive activity in clinical trials. In this review, cancer prevention using carotenoids are reviewed and the possible mechanisms of action are described.

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Energy supply and muscle fatigue in humans.

K Sahlin, K Söderlund, Michail Tonkonogi (1998)

Limitations in energy supply is a classical hypothesis of muscle fatigue. The present paper reviews the evidence available from human studies that energy deficiency is an important factor in fatigue. The maximal rate of energy expenditure determined in skinned fibres is close to the rate of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) utilisation observed in vivo and data suggest that performance during short bursts of exercise (<5 s duration) primarily is limited by other factors than energy supply (e.g. Vmax of myosine adenosine triphosphatase (ATPase), motor unit recruitment, engaged muscle mass). Within 10 s of exercise maximal power output decreases considerably and coincides with depletion of phosphocreatine. During recovery, maximal force and power output is restored with a similar time course as the resynthesis of phosphocreatine. Increases in muscle store of phosphocreatine through dietary supplementation with creatine increases performance during high-intensity exercise. These findings support the hypothesis that energy supply limits performance during high-intensity exercise. It is well documented that pre-exercise muscle glycogen content is related to performance during moderate intensity exercise. Recent data indicates that the interfibre variation in phosphocreatine is large after prolonged exercise to fatigue and that some fibres are depleted to the same extent as after high-intensity exercise. Despite relatively small decreases in ATP, the products of ATP hydrolysis (Pi and free ADP) may increase considerably. Free ADP calculated from the creatine kinase reaction increases 10-fold both after high-intensity exercise and after prolonged exercise to fatigue. It is suggested that local increases in ADP may reach inhibitory levels for the contraction process.

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Lactic acid and exercise performance : culprit or friend?

P. Cairns (2005)

This article critically discusses whether accumulation of lactic acid, or in reality lactate and/or hydrogen (H+) ions, is a major cause of skeletal muscle fatigue, i.e. decline of muscle force or power output leading to impaired exercise performance. There exists a long history of studies on the effects of increased lactate/H+ concentrations in muscle or plasma on contractile performance of skeletal muscle. Evidence suggesting that lactate/H+ is a culprit has been based on correlation-type studies, which reveal close temporal relationships between intramuscular lactate or H+ accumulation and the decline of force during fatiguing stimulation in frog, rodent or human muscle. In addition, an induced acidosis can impair muscle contractility in non-fatigued humans or in isolated muscle preparations, and several mechanisms to explain such effects have been provided. However, a number of recent high-profile papers have seriously challenged the 'lactic acid hypothesis'. In the 1990s, these findings mainly involved diminished negative effects of an induced acidosis in skinned or intact muscle fibres, at higher more physiological experimental temperatures. In the early 2000s, it was conclusively shown that lactate has little detrimental effect on mechanically skinned fibres activated by artificial stimulation. Perhaps more remarkably, there are now several reports of protective effects of lactate exposure or induced acidosis on potassium-depressed muscle contractions in isolated rodent muscles. In addition, sodium-lactate exposure can attenuate severe fatigue in rat muscle stimulated in situ, and sodium lactate ingestion can increase time to exhaustion during sprinting in humans. Taken together, these latest findings have led to the idea that lactate/H+ is ergogenic during exercise. It should not be taken as fact that lactic acid is the deviant that impairs exercise performance. Experiments on isolated muscle suggest that acidosis has little detrimental effect or may even improve muscle performance during high-intensity exercise. In contrast, induced acidosis can exacerbate fatigue during whole-body dynamic exercise and alkalosis can improve exercise performance in events lasting 1-10 minutes. To reconcile the findings from isolated muscle fibres through to whole-body exercise, it is hypothesised that a severe plasma acidosis in humans might impair exercise performance by causing a reduced CNS drive to muscle.

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Author and article information

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): Molecules

Journal ID (iso-abbrev): Molecules

Journal ID (publisher-id): molecules

Title: Molecules

Publisher: MDPI

ISSN (Electronic): 1420-3049

Publication date (Electronic): 09 October 2012

Publication date Collection: October 2012

Volume: 17

Issue: 10

Pages: 11864-11876

Affiliations

[1 ]Department of Food and Nutrition, Providence University, Taichung 43301, Taiwan

[2 ]Graduate Institute of Athletics and Coaching Science, National Taiwan Sport University, Taoyuan 33301, Taiwan

[3 ]Department of Physical Education, Yuanpei University, Hsinchu 30015, Taiwan

[4 ]Graduate Institute of Sports Science, National Taiwan Sport University, Taoyuan 33301, Taiwan

[5 ]National Laboratory Animal Center, National Applied Research Laboratories, Taipei 11529, Taiwan

[6 ]School of Nutrition and Health Sciences, Taipei Medical University, Taipei 11031, Taiwan

Author notes

[†]

These authors contributed equally to this work.

[* ] [* ] Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed; Email: p650214@ 123456nlac.narl.org.tw (H.-L.C.); john5523@ 123456mail.ntsu.edu.tw (C.-C.H.); Tel.: +886-3-328-3201 (ext. 2619) (C.-C.H.); Fax: +886-3-328-0592 (C.-C.H.).

Article

Publisher ID: molecules-17-11864

DOI: 10.3390/molecules171011864

PMC ID: 6268989

PubMed ID: 23047485

SO-VID: aa6712eb-7981-4275-a62c-4d6199ac2e4e

License:

This article is an open-access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/).

History

Date received : 06 August 2012

Date revision received : 08 September 2012

Date accepted : 08 October 2012

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Pumpkin ( Cucurbita moschata) Fruit Extract Improves Physical Fatigue and Exercise Performance in Mice

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Most cited references 24

Cancer Chemoprevention by Caroteno

Energy supply and muscle fatigue in humans.

Lactic acid and exercise performance : culprit or friend?

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Cited by 49