SUMMARY
In this study, the effect of aqueous extract of Zingiber officinaleon Gentamicin induced kidney damage was checked. The result of the statistical analysis shows a significant decrease (p<0.05) in body weight of rats administered Gentamicin only. Other groups showed no statistical significance.There was a significant decrease (P<0.05) of Sodium ion levels in rats administered Gentamicin and Zingiber officinale simultaneously as well as in rats administered Gentamicin for 7 days and then Zingiber officinale for 28 days, when both were compared to the control group. There were no statistically significant differences (P>0.05) in Potassium ion, Bi-Carbonate, Chloride ion and Urea levels across all groups when compared with the control.Meanwhile, group administered with Gentamicin only showed significant decrease (P<0.05) of creatinine levels. Although these results gotten from the biochemical assays differ from popular studies carried out by Vydrin et al., (2003), Golian (2011) and Mahaday ey al., (2005), who all reported contrasting results from that of this study. However, evidence from studies carried out more recently by Chen et al., (2014) show similar biochemical results as that of this study
Histologically, in the group treated with Gentamicin only (group C), the kidney tissue showed vascular stenosis, obstruction and heavy perivascular infiltrates of inflammatory cells while also showing interstitial congestion (plate 5). This effect resulted to a deviation in the normal architecture of the kidney, when compared to the control, which showed normal tubules, glomeruli, interstitial space and arcuate artery. These results were similar to Lesniak et al., (2003) and Dizaj et al., (2016) which help to show that Gentamicin is a standard/known substance causing kidney damage.
