Abstract

EVALUATION OF HEPATO-NEPHRO PROTECTIVE ACTIVITY OF ETHANOLIC EXTRACT OF ABRUS PRECATORIUS LINN. ROOT AGAINST PARACETAMOL INDUCED TOXICITY IN MALE SPRAGUE DAWLEY RATS

Swapna Kasi Reddy* and Asia Begum

Abstract

Liver diseases are amongst the most serious health problems in the world today and hepatocellular carcinoma is one of the world’s deadliest cancers. The aim of current study is to evaluate the hepatonephro protective activity of ethanolic extract of Abrus precatorius root against paracetamol induced toxicity in Male Sprague Dawley rats.30 male rats were allocated into five groups; Group1- control; Group2- treated orally with paracetamol during last two weeks; Group3-treated with high dose of extract alone; Group4,5- treated with low dose and high dose extract respectively for 4 weeks and administered paracetamol during last two weeks. Clinical, Clinicopathological and histopathological evaluations were done and paracetamol treated groups were compared with rats receiving no treatment and with rats given high dose of extract alone. The results indicated that oral administration of paracetamol induced severe hepatic and renal injury associated with oxidative stress. The combined treatment of paracetamol with low dose and high dose of extracts results an improvement in all evaluated parameters. This improvement was prominent in group receiving toxicity after pretreatment with high dose of extract. Animals receiving high dose extract alone were comparable to the control group except body weight and food intake which showed significant increase and proved the claim of appetizer activity of root and from histopathological studies it reveals that there were no changes in liver and kidney architecture and proved that extract was non toxic. Our results suggest that the protective activity of root can be related to antioxidant properties due to the presence of flavonoids.

Keywords: Abrus precatorius, Paracetamol, Hepatotoxicity, Nephrotoxicity, Oxidative stress, Antioxidant, Flavonoids