Antifatigue Effect of Asiaticoside in Mice by Attenuating Oxidative Stress

Background: Asiaticoside is one of the main components of triterpenoid saponins extracted from Centella asiatica. Asiaticoside has shown the effects of wound healing, osteoclastogenesis, anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer, and improving cognition in multiple human disease models. However, studies on the antifatigue effects of asiaticoside have not been explored. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the potential antifatigue effect and underlying mechanism of asiaticoside administration on exhaustive exercise performance. Methods: Male Kunming mice were divided into four groups randomly (n = 20/group). Saline (10 mL/kg) was administered to the model control group and the other three experimental groups were fed with low (10 mg/kg), medium (20 mg/kg) and high (40 mg/kg) asiaticoside once/daily for 14 days. The antifatigue effect of asiaticoside on mice was estimated by analyzing changes in body weight, weight-loaded swimming time, rotating time, lactic acid, urea nitrogen, liver/muscle glycogen, serumal superoxide dismutase, superoxide dismutase and the liver tissues of hematoxylin and eosin (H & E) staining. Results: The results indicated that no significant differences were observed in the body weight of each group (p > 0.05). Compared with the model control group, supplementation of asiaticoside significantly prolonged the weight-loaded swimming time and rotating time; Decreased the blood lactic acid (LA), blood urea nitrogen (BUN), and serumal malonaldehyde (MDA); And increased the content of liver/muscle glycogen and serumal superoxide dismutase levels (SOD) (p < 0.05). Furthermore, the pathological results of the liver were improved greatly. The maximal effect was observed in the medium group of 20 mg/kg. Conclusions: Asiaticoside is capable of reducing the fatigue effect by regulating energy consumption, energy metabolism and improving antioxidant activity after exercise. While there are still some shortcomings in this study, our findings provide a scientific basis for developing an asiaticoside-based antifatigue supplement.