ABSTRACT
Ulcerative colitis is an inflammatory disease of the intestine, specifically the colon which is marked by many symptoms, such as fever, diarrhea, blood in stool, and weight loss. It causes sores on the colon which causes abdominal pain when there are flare ups. Moringa oleifera is a highly medicinal plant with anti-inflammatory properties and previous research has been done on its effects on ulcerative colitis. The aim of this research study is to investigate the activities of aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and alanine aminotransferase (ALT) in the liver of acetic acid induced male wistar rats treated with Moringa oleifera.
The first phase was conducted to know the right dosage of Moringa oleifera leaves extract to be administered. A total of 16 rats were used. The rats were divided into four groups labelled A-D based on their weight. Group A was the control group and they were given 0.5ml of distilled water for 7 days. Group B was given 150ml of Moringa oleifera, group C was given 300ml of the extract and group D was given 500ml of the extract, all doses were orally administered for 7 days. After fasting for 24 hours the rats were sacrificed blood samples were taken and the colon, liver and kidney were harvested and kept in ice for analysis.
In phase two the rats were divided into 3 groups labelled A-C with group A being normal control without colitis was given distilled water, group B was induced with colitis and treated with moringa extract and group C as negative control was induced with colitis and treated with distilled water. The treatment was for four days and the rats were sacrificed on the fifth day after 24 hours of fasting.
There was an obvious difference in the levels of AST and ALT in the various groups with group A without colitis having the lowest level. The levels of the LFTs in group B were not as high as the levels in Group C. This shows that treatment with moringa oleifera leaves extract helps reduced the rate of elevation of the levels of AST and ALT. This proves on some level that Moringa oleifera leaves have anti-inflammatory properties.
