Investigating the Effect of Solvents Fractions of Cucurbita maxima Cuticular Lipids on Metabolic Biomarkers of Cardiovascular Disease

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of solvents (n-hexane, chloroform and methanol) fractions of Cucurbita maxima (pumpkin) cuticular lipids on metabolic biomarkers of cardiovascular disease using L-NAME induced hypertensive rats. Pumpkin is widely used in traditional medicine for a variety of ailments. For this investigation, a total of 36 albino rats (weighing between 120 and 150g) were randomly chosen and divided into twelve groups of three rats each. Each rat was weighed, marked, and weighed again every week for the following five weeks of the experiment. Rats were induced with hypertension using 40mg/kg body weight/24hours. While biomarkers were being monitored and reported on a weekly basis, other rats were given their regular diets and water. Groups I and II served as the normal control, Group III received a conventional medication to cause hypertension while Groups IV through XII received n-hexane, chloroform, and methanol fractions in different amounts to induce hypertension.A slight difference in metabolic biomarkers was observed between the normal control group and the hypertensive control group, which was reversed by the administration of methanol fraction. Cuticular lipids from Cucurbita maxima may thus have anti-hypertensive properties.