AMELIORATIVE POTENTIALS OF Alstonia boonei ON FORMALIN-INDUCED HEPATIC NECROSIS IN MALE WISTAR RATS

ABSTRACT

Inflammation is a reaction of a living vascularised tissue to an injury. Conventional or synthetic drugs used in the treatment of inflammatory diseases are available. However, there is paucity of information on the use of herbal medicine in the treatment of inflammation. The present study is aimed at evaluating the effects of aqueous extractof Alstonia booneionformalin-induced hepatic necrosis in male Wistar rats, using liver enzyme parameters. This study was done using 90 male Wistar rats. The animals were divided into 6 groups and 12 subgroups each comprising of 5 animals for the various plant extracts; leaf, stem bark and root bark, and treated accordingly: Normal control, formalin with A. boonei extract (150mg/kg bw), formalin with A. boonei extract (300mg/kg bw), formalin with A. booneiextract (600mg/kg bw); group 5 (test group) received 5mg/kg, p.o of indomethacin and 300mg/kg bw extract only. After the experimental period of 10 days, the animals were sacrificed and the blood samples were collected and the biochemical analyses were carried out.The activity of alanine aminotransferase, aspartate aminotransferase, alkaline phosphatase and lactate dehydrogenase-5 were measured using standard colorimetric methods.Data were analysed using ANOVA and a P-value of <0.05 was considered significant. It was observed that there was a significant increase (p<0.05) in serum aspartate aminotransferase, alanine aminotransferase, alkaline phosphatase and lactate dehydrogenase 5 in the leaf, stem bark and root bark extract compared with the control group. Serum alkaline phosphatase had no significant increase in the root bark extract compared to the control. In this study, it was observed that the aqueous extract ofA. boonei is effective against chronic inflammation in a dose-related manner. However, the present study suggests that the extract is toxic in high doses and longer dosage regimen. To minimise the toxicity, more toxicity studies should be carried out to understand more about the toxic effects of the plant on the liver.