Table 2. Agonist [carbachol (CCh)] and antagonist (atropine) activities expressed as pEC₅₀ or pA_2, respectively, in ileum and proximal colon of RD- and HFD-rats supplemented with or without ENC^® for 21 days.

		RD	RD + ENC®a	HFD	HFD+ ENC®a
	Day	0–21	21	0–21	21
Ileum	CCh b	6.27 ± 0.03	6.34 ± 0.05	5.89 ± 0.02**	5.90 ± 0.04*
	Atropine c	8.95 ± 0.03	8.90 ± 0.05	8.68 ± 0.04**	8.91 ± 0.02
Proximal Colon	CCh b	5.92 ± 0.02	5.80 ± 0.02##	5.83 ± 0.03*	5.43 ± 0.02**°°
	Atropinec	8.77 ± 0.03	8.57 ± 0.04##	7.73 ± 0.07***	8.73 ± 0.02**°°

a) RD-and HFD-rats have been given 21 days ENC^® (20 mg/kg/day b.w).

b) Data are expressed as pEC₅₀. pEC₅₀ = –log EC₅₀. EC₅₀ values are the means ± S.E.M. of at least four independent experiments and were calculated by a non-linear regression curve-fitting computer program [28] [50]

c) Data are expressed as pA₂. pA₂ values ± S.E.M. were calculated from Schild plots [26], constrained to slope –1.0 [27] (pA₂ is the positive value of the intercept of the line derived by plotting log (DR– 1) vs log [antagonist]. The log (DR– 1) was calculated from three different antagonist concentrations, and each concentration was tested from four to six times. Dose-ratio (DR) values represent the ratio of the potency of the agonist carbachol (EC₅₀) in the presence of the antagonist and in its absence. Parallelism of concentration–response curves was checked by linear regression, and slopes were tested for significance (P < 0.05).

*P <0.05

**P < 0.01

***P <0.001 vs RD, same time.

°°P < 0.01, vs HFD0-21.

## P< 0.01 vs RD0-21 (ANOVA followed by Bonferroni post test).