Pharmacological Evaluation of Boswellic Acid on Ovarectomized Rat Model for Post Menopausal Osteoporosis

Abstract

Aim & objective: Osteoporosis is a major health problem affecting hundreds of millions of people worldwide predominantly, post menopausal women. Pharmacological treatments are costly, with the exception of the combination of calcium and vitamin D and exceed the economic resources of patients in many countries and associated with severe side effects. Therefore the objective of our study is to evaluate the anti-osteoporotic effect of boswellic acid in Ovarectomized (OVX) rat model of Osteoporosis. Materials and methods: The Sprague–Dawley female rats were divided into 4 groups of 6 rats in each and treated as follows. 1) Sham operated, 2) Ovarectomized control, 3) Treated with boswellic acid (34.2 mg/kg, p.o), 4) Treated with estrogen (0.0563 mg/kg, p.o) respectively in Ovarectomized rats. After seven days of acclimation, the rats were ovarectomized by removal of ovaries bilaterally. The treatment was carried out for 42 days. Body weight of all animals was measured weekly. At the end of treatment, the blood and urine samples were collected. The serum was separated and subjected to analysis of calcium, phosphorus and alkaline phosphatase. Immediately, after collecting the urine and blood samples, uterus was carefully removed and weighed. The femur and lumbar vertebrae were isolated and used for the measurement of physical parameters like weight of uterus, physical properties of femur and lumbar vertebrae, mechanical properties of femur and lumbar vertebrae and biochemical parameters. Right femur was subjected to the histopathological studies. Results: There were no statistically significant (p<0.05) changes observed in the body weight of rats during 42 days treatment. It was observed that there was significant (p<0.05) increase in uterine weight in estrogen treated and boswellic acid treated group as compared to ovarectomized control groups and significant decrease in uterine weight in disease control group. Following the administration of boswellic acid and estrogen it was observed that there was an significant (p<0.05) increase in length and the weight of femur when compared to disease control group. It was observed that serum calcium,phosphorous and alkaline phosphatase levels content were increased significantly with boswellic acid as well as estrogen treated group as compared to Ovarectomized control group. The histopathological results also confirmed the protective effect of Boswellic acid. Conclusion: The present findings strongly suggest that Boswellic acid possess the potent Antiosteoporotic activity in Ovarectomized rats and substantiates the ethnic use in treatment of postmenopausal osteoporosis.