Negligible effect of oral garlic oil on the oral absorption of pyridoxine in metadoxine in rats.

Metadoxine [an ion-pair between pyridoxine and pyrrolidone carboxylate (PCA)] plus garlic oil treatment synergistically reduces alcoholic steatosis compared to each agent alone. We evaluated the effect of garlic oil on the pharmacokinetics of pyridoxine. After the oral administration of metadoxine, the total area under the plasma concentration-time curve from time zero to time infinity (AUC) and the peak plasma concentration (C(max)) of pyridoxine were significantly greater (by 40.6%) and higher (by 63.9%), respectively, than after oral administration of pyridoxine plus PCA. Oral metadoxine plus garlic oil also gave larger AUC (31.8%) and higher C(max) (64.9%) than pyridoxine plus PCA. However, garlic oil did not change the AUC or C(max) of pyridoxine in metadoxine. Thus, garlic oil does not enhance the metadoxine activity by affecting the absorption of pyridoxine.