Improving Effect of Canavalia Gladiata on Exercise Capability

Performance Enhancing Effect of Canavalia Gladiata

Beomjeong Kim

, Yanghee You

, Jeongjin Park

, Kyungmi Kim

, Jeongmin Lee

and Woojin Jun

1,3

Division of Food and Nutritional Sciences, Chonnam National University, Gwangju, Korea

Research Institute for Human Ecology, Chonnam National University, Gwangju, Korea

Department of Biofood Analysis, Korea Bio Polytechnic, Chungnam, Korea

Department of Medical Nutrition, Kyung Hee University, Yongin, Korea

1 OBJECTIVES

Canavalia gladiata is a perennial leguminous

cultivated throughout the tropics and subtropics in

Asia. C. gladiata is the excellent sources of starch

and protein, with a good balance of amino acids.

Also, C. gladiata contains the numerous

phytochemicals, which leads to the potential uses as

functional food. Therefore, in present study, the

effects of C. gladiata extracts on endurance exercise

capacity were investigated. The knowledge gained

might aid in the development of effective

performance enhancer.

2 METHODS

C. gladiata was refluxed with 20 L of water or 80%

ethanol at 250°C for 3 h. The extract obtained after

filtering was concentrated and lyophilized. Four-

week-old male ICR mice (19+2 g b.w.) were housed

in cages under automatically controlled air-

conditions of temperature (22±2°C), humidity (about

50%), and lighting (12:12-h light-dark cycle). The

mice were separated into three groups (n=12 per

group) with similar mean of exhaustive swimming

time; exercised control group (CON), water extract

from C. gladiata administered group (CGW), and

ethanol extract from C. gladiata administered group

(CGE). Samples were orally administered 1 g/kg

b.w./day

. The mice were forced to swim 1 h after

the treatment, and the exhaustive swimming time

was measured at 14

day. The swimming time of

mice was determined in an adjustable-current

swimming pool (90×45×45 cm) with 38 cm deep

water at 34±1°C. After the experimental period, all

mice were anaesthetized and sacrificed. The blood

lactate level was measured, using the kit which was

supplied by Arkray Inc. (Japan). The level of serum

non esterified fatty acid (NEFA) was evaluated

spectrophotometrically, using commercially

available diagnostic kit supplied by Wako (Japan).

Glycogen measurement was performed using the

anthrone method according to Gierus and Lopez

(1997) and Fadamiro et al. (2005).

3 RESULTS

As shown in Fig. 1, CGE group exhibited

approximately 1.6-fold increase in swimming time

on day 14 (46.7 min) compared to CON group (29.6

min). Also, the endurance exercise capacity of mice

treated with CGE was significantly larger than that

of CGW (32.9 min). The glucose levels of each

group revealed no difference (Fig. 2-A). However,

blood lactate level of CGE was relatively lower than

other groups (Fig. 2-B). Serum NEFA level of CGE

group was significantly increased compared to CON

and CGW groups (Fig. 2-C). Moreover, the amount

of muscular glycogen in CGE group was higher than

those of CON and CGW (Fig. 3).

4 DISCUSSION

In this study, exhaustive swimming time in CGE

group showed a statistically significant increase

compared to CGW group. These results imply that

the organosoluble compounds rather than

hydrosolubles in C. gladiata might be responsible

for the performance enhancing effect. Fatigue

happens when the blood lactate is overproduced.

Therefore, the lactate level is an important indicator

to judge the degree of fatigue (Ding et al., 2011).

The present study revealed that the administration of

CGE decreased the lactate level, confirming that

CGE possessed the performance enhancing

Kim B., You Y., Park J., Kim K., Lee J. and Jun W..

Improving Effect of Canavalia Gladiata on Exercise Capability - Performance Enhancing Effect of Canavalia Gladiata.

 2014 SCITEPRESS (Science and Technology Publications, Lda.)

potential. The NEFA is one of major fuels for

oxidative metabolism during exercise. Many

researches demonstrated improved endurance

capacity by increasing fat utilization during exercise

and have shown increased serum level of NEFA

during and/or after exercise with improved

endurance (Kim et al., 2012). In this study, blood

NEFA level of CGE group was significantly

increased compared to that of CON group. Also,

CGE-administered mice showed the lower levels of

muscular glycogen than CON group. Combined

together, the administration of CGE could improve

the endurance exercise capacity by increasing fat

utilization, with sparing glycogen stores and

reducing lactate production.

Figure 1: Effects of C. gladiata Extracts on Exhaustive

Swimming Capacity in Mice. CGW is hot water extract of

C. gladiata. CGE is 80% ethanol extract of C. gladiata.

Data are expressed as the mean±SE for 12 mice in each

group. The asterisk above the bar indicates a statistically

significant difference compared to the control by Student’s

t-test (p < 0.05).

Figure 2: Effects of C. gladiata Extracts on the Levels of

Blood Glucose, Lactate, and NEFA. CGW is hot water

extract of C. gladiata. CGE is 80% ethanol extract of C.

gladiata. Data are expressed as the mean±SE for 12 mice

in each group. Different letters above the bar are

statistically different by Duncan's multiple range test (p <

0.05).

Figure 3: Effects of C. gladiata Extracts on Muscular

Glycogen Level after Exhaustive Swimming. CGW is hot

water extract of C. gladiata. CGE is 80% ethanol extract

of C. gladiata. Data are expressed as the mean±SE for 12

mice in each group. Different letters above the bar are

statistically different by Duncan's multiple range test (p <

0.05).

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors are grateful to the Ministry of

Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs of Korea for

financial support.

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