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Abstract
The present study was carried out to investigate the effect of oral administration of artichoke leaves extract on daily food intake, body weight gain, feed efficiency ratio and organs weight to body weight ratio in hepatotoxic rats. Serum lipid profile and liver function as well as histopathological changes of liver and kidneys were also studied.
A total of 35 male albino rats weighing 150 – 180 gm body weight were used.The rats were divided into five groups of seven rats each. Three of these groups were fed on basal diet and injected by carbon tetrachloride in a dose of 1 ml/kg b.wt at 29 and 30th days to induce hepatitis .These groups of rats were orally administered artichoke leaves extract at doses 200, 400 and 800 mg/kg b.wt. One of the remaining two groups was fed on basal diet only (Control – ve) and the other was fed on basal diet and injected by CCl4 by the same dose and at the same time of experiment (control + ve). The experiment feeding period extended for 30 days.
At the end of experiment, rats were sacrificed and liver, kidneys, heart, spleen and lungs were then removed
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and weighed. Blood samples were collected for separating serum for estimating lipid profile as well as concentration of AST and ALT enzymes, total protein and total bilirubin. Liver and kidneys were examined for histopathological changes that may occur.
The obtained results revealed that, oral admini-stration of artichoke leaves extract at a dose of 800 mg/kg body weight to hepatotoxic rats caused the highest increase in daily food intake, body weight gain% and feed efficiency ratio, significant decreases in the relative weight of liver and kidneys, total cholesterol, triglycerides, LDL-c and VLDL-c, but caused a significant increase in the concentration of serum HDL-c, compared to the hepatotoxic group. The high dose of artichoke leaves extract also caused the greatest decrease in concentrations of serum ALT and AST enzymes, total protein, and total bilirubin. The three doses of artichoke leaves extract also caused a dose dependent reduction of degenerative changes caused by CCl4 in liver and kidney of hepatotoxic rats.