Lentils (Lens culinaris, L.) Attenuate Colonic Lesions and Neoplasms in Fischer 344 Rats 1. Department of Biochemistry, Microbiology and Forensic Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan. 2. Department of Nutrition and Food Technology, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan. 3. Department of Nutrition, Faculty of Pharmacy and Medical Sciences, Petra University, Amman, Jordan. * Correspondence should be addressed to: Hamed R. Takruri E-mail: htakruri@ju.edu.jo © 2011 DAR Publishers∕ University of Jordan. All Rights Reserved. Maha S. Shomaf, 1 Hamed R. Takruri, 2* “Mo’ez Al-Islam” E. Faris 3 Abstract Objective: Lentils (Lens culinaris, L.) contain several bioactive compounds that have been linked to the prevention of cancer. However, the in vivo chemopreventive ability of lentils against chemically-induced colonic lesions has not been previously examined. Our present study examined the hypothesis that lentils could suppress neoplasmic growth in vivo by virtue of their bioactive micro- and macro- constituents, and that culinary thermal treatment could affect the chemopreventive potential. Methods: To accomplish this goal, raw whole lentils (RWL), raw split lentils (RSL), cooked whole lentils (CWL) and cooked split lentils (CSL) were used. Pluronic F-68 (PF68), which is a well-studied chemopreventive agent, was used also for the purpose of comparison. Sixty weanling Fisher 344 male rats, 4-5 weeks of age, were randomly assigned to six groups (10 rats/group): the control group (C) received AIN-93G diet; treatment lentil groups of RWL, CWL, RSL and CSL received the treatment diets containing AIN-93G+5% of lentils, while PF68 group received C+1% PF68 diet. After acclimatization for 1 week, all animals were put on the control and treatment diets separately for 5 weeks. At the end of the fifth week of feeding, all rats received two s.c. injections of azoxymethane (AOM) carcinogen at 15 mg/kg rat body weight/dose once a week for two consecutive weeks. After 17 weeks of the last AOM injection, all rats were euthanized. Results: Total colonic lesions and neoplasms (mean ±SEM) ranged from 6 to 8 for lentil groups, with a reduction value of 43 to 57% from the control (C) group (14 lesions). Incidence of severe dysplasia was reduced significantly (P=0.0022) in the colons of rats fed on lentils (0%-10%), except RWL (20%) when compared with the control (40%) whilst incidence of adenocarcinomas was reduced significantly (P=0.0430) in lentil groups (0-10%), except RSL (20%), when compared with the control (40%). Conclusion: Our findings indicate that the consumption of lentils may attenuate colon carcinogenesis in animal models, and that hydrothermal treatment resulted in an improvement in the chemopreventive potential. Keywords: Lentils [lens culinaris, L.], Colon Cancer, Fischer 344 Rats, Azoxymethane. (J Med J 2011; Vol. 45 (3):3-231- 238) Received Accepted February 28, 2010 October 3, 2010