ABSTRACT
Several plants Parts and other plant components have recently been explored for their potential medicinal properties as well a drug sources. Ficus exasperata is one of such plant with a long history of use. Strong national systems that monitor the production and quality of medications, report their negative effects, and give accurate information for their safe use for global drug safety. The leaves of Ficus exasperata are well regarded for treating a range of illnesses and conditions. However the leaf have been said to possess some properties relative to oxidative stress and antioxidants levels which is the aim of this study. wistar male rats was used as specimen in this study. 1, 2-Dimethylhydrazine (DMH) is a hydrazine in which one of the hydrogen attached to each nitrogen has been replaced by a methyl group which has carcinogenic and it’s a powerful alkylating agent used to induce colon cancer in laboratory rats and mice. Wistar male rats was used as specimen in this study, the leaves of Ficus exasperata were dried, grinded and soaked with methanol after 72hours, then sieved and concentrated to obtain the methanolic extract of Ficus plant used for the treatment of colon cancer, the rats were grouped into Five (5) groups with six rats in each group. The rats were acclimatized for two weeks after that the researched commenced. Each rats were fed with feed and induced with 1,2- Dimethylhydrazine (40mg/kg) except those in group 1. Group 1 which is the control group was not induced with colon cancer, they were just given rat feed, Group 2 were induced with just DMH 40mg/kg without the Ficus extract, Group 3 were given 250mg/kg of Ficus extract and 40mg/kg of DMH, Group 4 were induced with 40mg/kg DMH and 500mg/kg of Ficus extract, while Group 5 were induced with 40mg/kg DMH and 750mg/kg of Ficus extract, the rats were induced orally. The Ficus extract was administered daily while the DMH was administered at intervals of three days for two weeks. After 14 days of administration, the rats were anaesthetized with chloroform, and sacrificed. The tissues were thereafter harvested into sample bottles, homogenized and used immediately to carry out the experiment. The Antioxidants, Catalase, superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione (GSH), glutathione peroxidase (GPx), Malonialdehyde (MDA) and Total protein(TP) activities were carried out on the tissues, liver, kidney and colon to check the effect of the plant extract to treat colon cancer, the total protein level shows no significant difference between the control and the test groups in the kidney, liver and colon, the MDA levels shows that the plant was able to suppress the effect of the colon cancer on the tissues, the GSH shows slight significant difference between the control and the groups induced with colon cancer, the GPx level shows significant level between the control and the tests groups on the kidney and liver, the SOD levels shows significant differences on the colon and liver on the control and the kidney and colon of test groups. This observation supports that methanolic extract of Ficus exasperata on antioxidants level of rats induced colon cancer is more effective at higher dose of 750mg.
