Research Article Immunomodulatory Effect of Red Onion (Allium cepa Linn) Scale Extract on Experimentally Induced Atypical Prostatic Hyperplasia in Wistar Rats

Copyright © 2014 Ahmed A. Elberry et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Red onion scales (ROS) contain large amounts of flavonoids that are responsible for the reported antioxidant activity, immune enhancement, and anticancer property. Atypical prostatic hyperplasia (APH) was induced in adult castrated Wistar rats by both s.c. injection of testosterone (0.5mg/rat/day) and by smearing citral on shaved skin once every 3 days for 30 days. Saw palmetto (100mg/kg) as a positive control and ROS suspension at doses of 75, 150, and 300mg/kg/day were given orally every day for 30 days. All medications were started 7 days after castration and along with testosterone and citral. The HPLC profile of ROS methanolic extract displayed two major peaks identified as quercetin and quercetin-4