Red Beetroot Juice and Stamina: An Experimental Study

Abstract

Introduction: Red beet juice is increasingly used in sports to enhance the endurance of athletes. To increase the specific efficiency of red beet juice, the method of its fractionation by ultrafiltration was used for the first time. The purpose of the study was to evaluate the effect of fractionated beetroot juice on the strength and endurance of laboratory rats. Methods: Male Wistar rats (6 groups; n = 10) were used in the study. In addition to the standard chow, some groups of rats 2 h before the exercises received 0.5 ml of native (RBJ) or fractionated (FRBJ) per os. Three groups of animals were trained using a motorized wheel with a gradual speed increase over four weeks: 20 min/day for five days a week. Muscle strength of animals in all groups was measured by electronic dynamometry and the endurance of rats was evaluated once a week using electrical stimulation on a racetrack which moved at a speed of 15 m/min. The test was performed an hour after the ingestion of RBJ or FRBJ. At the end of the experiment, biochemical blood indices were determined. FRBJ was prepared by the original method. Results: Most significant differences in the chemical composition of RBJ and FRBJ were found for glutamic acid, of which the content was 67.2% higher than in native juice. The greatest changes during the experiment were in the mass of the rats’ calf muscles. Regular running exercise caused a 29% increase in muscle mass. The additional increase in m. gastrocnemius was also provided y FRBJ – 12%. The combination of physical activity and the introduction of red beet derivate led to the increase of the calf muscle mass by 121% within a month. Assessing the endurance of animals by frequency of falling from the treadmill, we can conclude that compared with untrained animals, trained rats receiving FRBJ had three times higher levels of endurance. Conclusion: Consumption of FRBJ led to increased muscle strength in rats and the ergogenic effect of the product was significantly higher in combination with physical activity.