ORIGINAL PAPER In vitro study of lipid peroxidation and free radical scavenging activity of cow urine Meeta Lavania • Jyotsana Dalal • Simrita Cheema • Chandra Shekhar Nautiyal • Banwari Lal Received: 9 August 2010 / Revised: 14 January 2011 / Accepted: 17 January 2011 / Published online: 5 February 2011 Ó Springer-Verlag 2011 Abstract This study represents a comprehensive analysis and scientific validation of our ancient knowledge about the ethnopharmacological aspects of cow urine by mea- suring the lipid peroxidation, radical scavenging, and level of reduced glutathione and catalase activity. Graded doses of cow urine were administered orally to experimentally treated rats. Results of liver and plasma from experimen- tally treated rats indicated that cow urine reduced the levels of thiobarbituric acid reactive substance significantly in all the treatments (P \ 0.01). In vitro experiments with the liver of control and experimentally treated rats were also carried out against cumene hydroperoxide-induced lipid peroxidation. On LCMS analysis, the antioxidant compo- nent of cow urine was identified as uric acid (m/z 169.07). The results demonstrate that the cow urine-mediated induction of antioxidant level controls oxidative damage, even after minimal processing, and thus is indicative of its potential as a viable substitute of synthetic antioxidants. Keywords Catalase  Glutathione  Lipid peroxidation  Thiobarbituric acid reactive substances  1, 1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl  Uric acid Abbreviations TBARS Thiobarbituric acid reactive substances DPPH 1, 1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl GSH Glutathione reduction CHP Cumene hydroperoxide Introduction In recent years, increasing attention has been paid to human health. Several epidemiological studies have indi- cated that a high intake of plant products is associated with a reduced risk of a number of chronic diseases, such as atherosclerosis and cancer [1]. It is increasingly being realized that a majority of the present day diseases are due to shift in the balance of the pro-oxidant and antioxidant homeostatic phenomenon in the body. Pro-oxidant condi- tion dominates either due to the increased generation of the free radicals caused by excessive oxidative stress of the current life or due to poor scavenging in the body caused by depletion of the dietary antioxidants [2]. Free radicals are continuously produced in the body of living organisms mainly due to oxidation. Antioxidant system of the body is generally able to combat the oxida- tive stress produced after physiological processes [3]. Modern civilization is facing combination of physical stress, pollutant stress, dietary stress caused by consuming fast food, etc. These stresses culminate into generation of free radicals, and the antioxidant system of body fails to Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s00217-011-1436-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. M. Lavania  B. Lal (&) The Energy and Resources Institute, Lodhi Road, New Delhi 110003, India e-mail: banwaril@teri.res.in J. Dalal  S. Cheema Center for Bioresources and Biotechnology, TERI University, Plot No. 10-Instutional area, Vasant Kunj, New Delhi 110070, India C. S. Nautiyal National Botanical Research Institute, Rana Pratap Marg, Lucknow 226001, India 123 Eur Food Res Technol (2011) 232:703–711 DOI 10.1007/s00217-011-1436-6