ABSTRACT

Codeine is a synthetic opioid analgesic medication used to treat moderate or severe pain, cough, diarrhea. However its uses poses many high risk, like drug induced organ damage which can arise from overdose and over use. With the current quest of searching for better alternatives of medicines and therapy with little or no side effects, plants and their products of metabolism has been one of the main focus of researchs. This study was aimed at investigating the ameliorative properties of Citrallus lanatus seed in the brain, heart and lung tissues of albino rat pre-treated with codeine. In the experiment, 24 albino rat were divided into 6 groups (control, negative, positive and experimental groups). All groups except for the normal control group received 20mg per kg  of body weight of codeine daily for 14 days, the three experimental test group where later treated with 250, 500, 1000mg per kg of body weight respectively for 14 days, and the positive control group receive 50mg per kg of body weight daily of silymarin for the remaining 14 days.  Histopathological changes were assessed after the study. The data generated during and after the experiment was analyzed using statistical software  SPSS version 20 ( statistical package for social sciences).In histological findings,the normal control group  which receive none of the treatments showed normal brain, heart and lung tissues, while in the negative control, inflammatory lung tissues damage showing haemorrhagic pulmonary syndrome  was found. The experimental groups had no damage findings on the lung tissues except for the group receiving the lowest dose of the seed extract of 250mg per kg if body weight daily showing emphysema. The positive control group also showed haemorrhagic pulmonary presentation in lung tissues. This study shows that Citrallus lanatus seed have ameliorative effects on codeine induced lung damage in relation to pulmonary haemorrhagic syndrome and emphysema. Citrallus lanatus seed aqueous extract is efficient to ameliorate codeine related lung damage in albino rat  at 500mg per kg of body weight and above. Further research should be done understanding the mechanism of action of Citrallus lanatus seed in codeine induced lung damage.