Blood optical absorption of rats with hepatic damage and turmeric treatment: Methemoglobin analysis

Photoacoustic spectroscopy (PAS) is singled out by its capability to resolve the optical absorption spectra of each element, of a multicomponent system, by the named phase resolved method. The possibility of the use of this method is due to the fact that the Photoacoustic signal is not only sensitive to the optical absorption of the sample as well as the non-radiative relaxation times of its elements. In the present study we compare and analyze, by phase resolved method, Fisher rat blood in four groups: healthy rat blood, liver cancer rat blood, healthy rat blood given by a daily dose of Curcuma longa, and liver cancer rat blood given by a daily dose of Curcuma longa (turmeric), where the optical absorption spectra of the analyzed blood samples was obtained by PAS, in a wavelength range from 350 nm to 650 nm. Three repetitions of 60 μl of blood for each group was done. By using the phase resolved method a new optical absorption band suggestive of methemoglobin was found, observing the benefits of the intake of turmeric due to the fact that the optical absorption spectrum of the Cancer + turmeric group diminish 14% with respect to the Cancer group, anticipating a lower concentration of methemoglobin in blood.