Toxicol Lett. 2002 Oct; 135(3): 209-17.

Assessment of the ability of the antioxidant cocktail-derived from fermentation of plants with effective microorganisms (EM-X) to modulate oxidative damage in the kidney and liver of rats in vivo: studies upon the profile of poly- and mono-unsaturated fatty acids.

Aruoma OI, Deiana M, Rosa A, Casu V, Piga R, Peccagnini S, Dessi MA, Ke B, Liang YF, Higa T.

Division of Neuroscience and Psychological Medicine, Department of Neuroinflammation, Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, Charing Cross Hospital Campus, Fulham Palace Road, London W6 8RF, UK. o.aruoma@ic.ac.uk

The antioxidant cocktail EM-X derived from ferment of unpolished rice, papaya and sea weeds with effective microorganisms (EM) of lactic acid bacteria, yeast, and photosynthetic bacteria is widely available in South-East Asia. Oral administration of a EM-X to rats for 7 days inhibited the ferric-nitrilotriacetic acid (Fe-NTA)-dependent oxidation of fatty acids with protections directed towards docosahexanoic, arachidonic, docosapentanenoic acids, oleic, linoleic and eicosadieonoic acids in the liver and kidney. But only the protections of oxidation to docosahexanoic, arachidonic acid in the kidney were statistically significant. Treatment of rats with EM-X prior to the intraperitoneal administration of Fe-NTA led to a reduction in the overall levels of conjugated dienes (CD) measured in the kidney by 27% and in the liver by 19% suggesting inhibition of lipid peroxidation in these organs. The levels of glutathione and alpha-tocopherol were largely unaffected suggesting that the protection by the regular strength of EM-X was confined to the inhibition of lipid peroxidation in vivo, a point dependent on the concentrations of bioactive flavonoids.