Dietary supplementation of ferulic acid and ferulic acid ethyl ester induces quinone reductase and glutathione-S-transferase in rats

Ferulic acid ethyl ester (FAEE) and ferulic acid (FA) were fed to rats to determine in vivo efficacy in elevating selected phase II enzyme activities and antioxidant capacity. Male Sprague–Dawley rats were fed the AIN-93M control diet, or the control diet supplemented with 1% FA, 1% FAEE, or 0.1% FAEE for 2 weeks. Quinone reductase (QR), glutathione-S-transferase (GST), thioredoxin reductase (TxR) activities, and oxidised and reduced glutathione were determined for brain, lung, liver, kidney, intestine and colon tissues. Both FA and FAEE (1%) supplementation increased QR and GST specific activities in kidney and colon tissues by 23–38% relative to the control diet. FAEE (1%) supplementation also induced QR specific activity, by 1.46- and 1.27-fold over the control diet, in intestinal and lung tissue of animals, whereas FA did not. No effect of diet was observed on liver cytochrome P450-1A1 activity. These results demonstrate that dietary FA and FAEE induce QR activity in the colon, small intestine, lung, and kidney, and improve glutathione antioxidant status in the colon and intestine. Therefore, dietary FA and FAEE may elevate defences to oxidative- and xenobiotic-induced stress in vivo.