Abstract

ASSESSMENT OF SERUM UREA, CREATININE AND BILIRUBIN LEVELS AFTER INDUCING WISTAR RATS WITH MALARIA AND TREATED WITH ETHANOLIC EXTRACT OF ARTEMISIA ANNUA L. AND ARTEMISININ COMBINATION THERAPY (ACT)

Ekam V. S.*, Ekam N. V., Odio S. B. and Ihe S. O.

Abstract

The assessment of serum urea, creatinine and bilirubin levels in malaria infested wistar rats treated with the crude extract of Artemisia annua and artemisinin combination therapy (ACT) was investigated using 24 wistar rats weighing between 180 – 220g. The rats were divided into four groups of six rats each. Group 1 served as the normal control and received 1ml of distilled water, group 2 animals were malaria induced but untreated and received 0.2ml of distilled water, group 3 animals were malaria induced and received ACT (1.142mg/kg body weight), group 4 animals were malaria induced and received the crude extract from Artemisia annua (300mg/kg body weight). The administration was carried out twice a day for three consecutive days. The rats were given free access to food and water. At the end of administration, blood samples were taken through cardiac puncture into treated sample bottles for analysis. The results showed that there was a significant decrease (P0.05) when compared with the control. The total serum bilirubin of both the malaria untreated and ACT treated groups (3.37±0.34) and (4.72±0.41) respectively showed no significant change compared with the control (4.07±0.63) while that of the A. annua treated group was significantly higher than both the control and other experimental groups.

Keywords: Artemisinin, Artemisia annua, Plasmodium, serum, creatinine, bilirubin, urea, blood.