PHYTOTHERAPY RESEARCH Phytother. Res. 16, 286287 (2002) Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI: 10.1002/ptr.

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SHORT COMMUNICATION

Effect of Freeze Dried Extract of Olea europaea on the PituitaryThyroid Axis in Rats
A. A. Al-Qarawi,1* M. A. Al-Damegh2 and S. A. ElMougy1
1 2

Department of Veterinary Medicine, College of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine, King Saud University, PO Box 1482, Saudi Arabia Girls College of Education, Scientic Department, Buraydah, Qassim Branch, Saudi Arabia

The effect of an aqueous extract of olive (Olea europaea) leaf on the thyroid activity was studied. The results suggest a stimulatory action of the extract on the thyroid, unrelated to the pituitary. Copyright # 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

INTRODUCTION Between 1948 and 1954, the olive leaf was used both empirically as well as in experimental and clinical studies for its hypotensive action. Zarzuelo et al. (1991) studied the vasodilator effect of olive leaf; while in 1993, Duarte et al. studied the effect of oleuropeoside (isolated from Olea europaea) in isolated guinea-pig atria. Later in 1995, Olea europaea was found to inuence the rat isolated ileum and trachea (Fehri et al., 1995). Olive leaf was reported to have a signicant hypoglycaemic activity (Gonzalez et al., 1992). Recently, oleuropein, the bitter principle of olives, was found to enhance nitric oxide production by mouse macrophages (Visioli et al., 1998). Olive oil had an overall lowering activity on serum fatty acids (Campbell and Dorn, 1992) in dogs. These properties initiated a stepwise experiment into the possible effect of olive leaf extracts directly on the thyroid gland or/and on the pituitary.

group was kept as a control and given a daily oral dose of distilled water. The three other groups were given an oral dose of 100 mg, 250 mg and 500 mg of the lyophyllized aqueous extract of the olive leaf for 14 consecutive days. On day 15 the rats were bled from the inner canthus and the plasma was separated for the various hormonal assays. Statistical analysis. Students t-test was performed for comparing different sets of data.

Results Table 1 reveals that after 14 days of treatment with the aqueous extract of Olea europeae leaves, the TSH level in the blood decreased sharply and signicantly. Serum T3 increased but to differing degrees. The increase in T3 was dose dependent and approximately three times the control values. Although the T4 increased the values were not signicant.

Material and Methods Plant material. The plant material consisted of the leaves of Olea europaea collected in DecemberJanuary 1998 in AlTaif, Saudi Arabia. On arrival the sample was ground and soaked in distilled water and kept at 4 C for 48 h. The extract was then separated by ltration and subsequently lyophillized and refrigerated at 4 C until used. Serum thyroxine (T4) triiodothyronine (T3) and thyrotrophic (TSH) assay. Plasma levels of thyroxine (T4), triiodothyronine(T3) and thyrotropic (TSH) hormones were determined using Coat-a-Count I125-radioimmunoassay kits provided from the Diagnostic Products Corporation. Design of the experiment. Male mature Wistar rats weighing 125150 g were divided into four groups. One
* Correspondence to: Dr A. A. Al-Qarawi, Department of Veterinary Medicine, College of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine, King Saud University, P.O. Box 1482, Saudi Arabia.

Discussion The results suggest that an aqueous extract prepared from olive leaves has a thyroid stimulating activity. This property may explain (a) the hypolipidaemic effect of olive leaves, because levels of serum lipids, including

Table 1. Effect of the aqueous extract Olea europaea leaves on serum TSH, T3 and T4
Treatment Control 100 mg 250 mg 500 mg
a

TSH(mIU/mL) 0.8 0.055 0.2 0.001b 0.2 0.001c 0.2 0.001c

T3(nmol/L) 1.2 0.11 1.8 0.35 2.3 0.38b 3.0 0.70a

T4(ng/dL) 0.9 0.071 1.0 0.31 1.1 0.29 1.3 0.24

Values are mean SEM. p < 0.05. b p < 0.01. c p < 0.001. Received 27 May 1999 Accepted 12 April 2000

Copyright # 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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cholesterol, are known to be lowered by increased levels of circulating thyroid hormones (Tepperman, 1981) and (b) the hypoglycaemic activity of olive leaves (Gonzalez et al., 1992) which could be brought about as a result of increased thyroid activity (Felig et al., 1981). In the present investigation, the results indicate that the action of the olive leaf extract was mediated either directly on the thyroid gland as seen in a signicant rise in the level of T3 and a non-signicant increase in T4 or/and through peripheral conversion to T3. It is well known that T4 is the major secretory product of the thyroid and that 20% of the daily production rate of T3 is derived from the thyroid

secretion and 80% from peripheral T4 conversion. This conversion is brought about by 5' deiodinase (Bennett and Plum, 1996). Therefore, the aqueous extract of the olive leaf could have exhibited a stimulatory inuence on the 5' deiodinase thus increasing the peripheral conversion of T4 to T3. The signicant decreased level of TSH could have been brought about through a direct inhibitory action on the pituitary, or through the feedback mechanism of an increased level of T4 or/and an increased uptake of the TSH by the thyroid. This requires further investigation to distinguish between the three possible mechanisms of thyroid stimulation.

References
Bennett JC, Plum F. 1996. Textbook of Medicine 20th edn. W.B. Saunders: London; 12271228. Campbell KL, Dorn G. 1992. Effects of oral sunower oil and olive oil on serum and cutaneous fatty acid concentrations in dogs. Res Veter Sci 53: 172178. Duarte J, Perez O, Zarzuelo A, Jimenez J, Perez-Vizcaino F, Tamargo J. 1993. Effects of oleuropeoside in isolated guinea-pig atria. Planta Med 59: 318322. Fehri B, Mrad S, Aiache JM, Lamaison JL. 1995. Effects of Olea europaea L. extract on the rat isolated ileum and trachea. Phytother Res 9: 435439. Felig P, Baxter JD, Broadus AE, Frohman LA. 1981. Endocrinology and Metabolism. McGraw-Hill: New York. Gonzalez M, Zarzuelo A, Gamez MJ, Utrilla MP, Jimenez J, Osuna I. 1992. Hypoglycaemic activity of olive leaf. Planta Med 58: 513515. Tepperman J. 1981. Metabolic and Endocrine Physiology 4th edn. Year Book: Chicago. Visioli F, Bellosta S, Galli C. 1998. Oleuropein, the bitter principle of olives, enhances nitric oxide production by mouse macrophages. Life Sci 62: 541546. Zarzuelo A, Duarte J, Jimenez J, Gonzalez M, Utrilla MP. 1991. Vasodilator effect of olive leaf. Planta Med 57: 417 419.

Copyright # 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Phytother. Res. 16, 286287 (2002)