Estimation of antioxidant enzymes
Antioxidant enzyme was estimated by liver and kidney homogenate (10% homogenate), prepared in chilled phosphate buffer solution of pH 7.0. This was used to measure the levels and activities of superoxide dismutase (Marklund and Marklund 1974) and catalase (Sinha 1972) through standard protocols. SOD was assayed by autoxidation of pyrogallol while CAT was assayed by decomposition of hydrogen peroxide. The activities were expressed as unit/mg of protein (a unit is defined as the amount which will catalyse the transformation of 1 micromole of substrate (or product) per min, under defined assay conditions).
Statistical analysis
All the data were expressed as the mean ± SEM and analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used for the statistical analysis using SPSS 11.5 followed by Duncan Multiple Range post hoc test. The values were considered to be significant when p