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ABSTRACT
The application of medicinal plants in the treatment of diseases stems from years of research into the identification of plants active phyto-constituents. Simarouba glauca is one of such plants with extensive traditional use and a long history in ethno medicine. Extensive research on S. glauca, has shown it to be a blooming source of natural anti-oxidant, thus this study was aimed at evaluating the toxicity of S. glauca. The toxic effect of S. glauca on the heart of female wistar rats were investigated by evaluating the effects of methanolic leaf extract on the Malondialdehyde levels, Total protein concentration and antioxidant enzymes in the heart. Methanolic leaf extract of S. Glauva was prepared by rising and air dying freshly cut leaves from cercobela farms, for 28-day, at room temperature. The leaves were ground and sieved to obtain fine particles. 500 g of the leaves was saturated in 2.5L absolute methanol and stirred at 24 hours interval the filtrate was freeze-dried to obtain extract and stored in an air-tight container. Female wistar weighing 80 g was used for this study, the animals were maintained under controlled conditions, 12-hour light-dark cycles and divided into four groups of five rats each. Group 1 served as the control, to which no methanolic leaf extract was given, group 2, 3 and 4 served as the treatment group and was administered 200 mg, 400 mg and 600 mg of methanolic leaf extract of S. glauca, respectively for 28 days. At the end of the animal study, the animals were fasted overnight and sacrificed. The heart was excised via dissecting the abdominal cavity, weighed, homogenized and the tissue homogenate subjected to lipid peroxidation (MDA) and antioxidant biochemical enzyme assessment assays (SOD, Catalase and GPx). The results of these biochemical assays showed no significant increase (p> 0.05) in MDA and Total Protein levels of the treated groups when compared to the reference control group. Furthermore, findings from this study showed no oxidative imbalance in heart antioxidant biomarkers. (P> 0.05) relative to the control. The results from this study suggests S. glauca showed no sign of toxicity or alteration in heart antioxidant biomarkers at high concentration of 600 mg/kg body weight of the female wistar rats.
