NEPHROPROTECTIVE ACTIVITY OF EHANOLIC EXTRACT OF ELEPHANTOPHUS SCABER LEAVES ON ALBIO RATS

Abstract

In traditional medicine, different parts of Elephantopus scaber Linn are highly valued for the treatment of array of human diseases including cardiotonic, diuretic, hepatoprotective, antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory activity etc. In the present study, single oral dose (200-600 mg/kg/day for 7 days) of ethanolic leaf extract of Elephantopus scaber Linn. Leaves were studied for its nephroprotective effect on albino rats. In the study of gentamicin induced nephrotoxicity, thirty adult male Wistar rats were evenly divided into five groups of six animals each. The treated groups, which were pretreated with the dose of 200, 400 and 600 mg/kg body weight per day of leaf extract respectively one hour before each dose of the nephrotoxicants for seven days and compared with control group. On 7^th day, the blood samples of all the groups were taken for biochemical examination on different parameters i.e. serum levels of urea, protein and creatinine, as well as quantitative ionic estimation of some ions like sodium, potassium, chloride, bicarbonate etc. Histological analysis of rat kidneys and body weight as well as kidney wt were also observed. In the study of gentamicin induced nephrotoxicity on rats, the dose of tested extract at 200–600 mg/kg/day significantly (p < 0.01) decreases the levels of serum creatinine, total protein and serum urea but shows slightly increase on the electrolyte levels in dose dependent manner. The nephroprotective effect of Elephantopus scaber could be due to flavonoid content and the inherent antioxidant moieties in the extract. The ethanolic extract of Eelphantopus scaber leaves could constitute a lead to discovery of a novel drug for the treatment of drug-induced Nephrotoxicity.