Balsamodendron mukul suppresses benzoyl peroxide and ultraviolet light induced tumor promotional events in Swiss mice

The current study evaluates the efficacy of Balsamodendron mukul Hook ex. Stocks, an indigenous plant, in the modulation of benzoyl peroxide (BPO) treated and ultraviolet (UV) light irradiated tumor promotional events. BPO is a well-known tumor promoter while UV radiations are capable of acting as complete carcinogens. Treatment of the dorsal portions of the mice skins with BPO (20 mg/0.2 ml/animal) and subsequent UV irradiation (0.420 J/m2/s) caused a significant depletion of reduced glutathione (GSH), it’s metabolizing and phase II enzymes (p < 0.01). Also, down regulation of the activities of antioxidant enzymes and up regulation of ornithine decarboxylase activity and enhancement in the synthesis of DNA, malondialdehyde (MDA) and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) was observed. However, topical pretreatment with the extract of B. mukul not only restored the content of GSH, MDA and H2O2 but it also recovered the activities of above-mentioned enzymes (p < 0.05) and prevented synthesis of DNA (p < 0.05) significantly. Although the lower dose was not very effective, the higher dose showed promising results against oxidative stress and hyperproliferative response of BPO and UVB radiations. From the present data we conclude that B. mukul is potentially strong enough to modulate the events of skin tumor promotion.