Antitumorigenic Action of Fenugreek Seeds

1,2-dimethylhydrazine (DMH) is a toxic environmental pollutant. Humans are exposed to DMH through rocket fuel and Gyromitra species of mushroom. DMH induced colon tumor in rats mimics human colon tumor in morphological and histological aspects. Thus, DMH model is well established and correlated with human problems.The effects of dietary fenugreek seeds on induced colon tumor and oxidative stress was investigated in male Wistar rats. Rats administered with a weekly subcutaneous injection of DMH (20 mg/kg body weight) for 15 weeks developed colon tumor with 100% incidence, and showed a significant, i) decrease in lipid peroxidation (LPO) measured interms of thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS), ii) decrease in phospholipid, a major substrate for LPO and iii) increase in glutathione dependent enzymes-glutathione peroxidase (GPx) and glutathione S-transferase (GST), when compared to control rats. However, supplementation of dietary fenugreek to DMH treated rats significantly decreased the tumor incidence to 16.66%, increased the TBARS and phospholipid content and decreased the GPx and GST activities when compared to DMH treated rats. It is suggested that fenugreek act as antitumorigenic agent by influencing DMH induced colon tumor incidence and oxidative stress through its constituents flavonoids, saponin, protease inhibitors and dietary fibre.