Abstract
Renal disease has been found to be the ninth leading cause of death. Environmental pollution is a serious cause for concern nowadays and the exposure of humans to heavy metals released into the environment by several sources produces deleterious and lethal effects. Cadmium (Cd) which is a non-essential heavy metal known to possess toxic effects on living things can be found almost anywhere and its toxicity is of concern to industrial workers and all humans due to its use in some industrial products and also in agriculture. The chief organ of toxic impact in the human is the kidney, where the proximal tubule is a major target of Cd deposition. The present study investigated if ethanolic extract of Chanca Piedra (CP) (<i>Phyllantus amarus</i>) has any prophylactic or ameliorative effects against nephrotoxicity induced by cadmium sulphate in adult male Wistar rats. A total of forty-two (42) adult male Wistar rats were used for this study and were divided into seven (7) groups (n=6) as follows: Group A (control), Group B (40mg/kg BW), Group C (100mg/kg BW of CP and 40mg/kg BW of Cd), Group D (200mg/kg BW of CP and 40mg/kg BW), Group E (40mg/kg BW and 100mg/kg BW of CP), Group F (40mg/kg BW and 200mg/kg BW of CP), Group G (200mg/kg BW of CP). Both cadmium and Chanca Piedra were administered orally through oro-gastric cannula. Results showed that exposure to Cd lowered the activities of the kidney by increasing the plasma creatinine and urea levels. Exposure to CP also lowered the activities of the kidney by increasing the plasma creatinine and urea levels. The findings suggest that the administration of CP extract has no prophylactic or ameliorative effects on cadmium induced kidney damage and continue use of this extracts in the treatment of some diseases may be deleterious to the kidney.
Highlights
Renal disease has been found to be the ninth leading cause of death [1] and renal failure is one of the most common clinical symptoms [2]
Renal failure refers to decline of excretory functions of kidney and it is usually characterized by decrease in glomerular filtration rate (GFR) which results in the abnormal retention of blood urea and serum creatinine which must be excreted [3]
There was no significant difference in the water when the control group was compared to the cadmium treated group, this is in contrast with Ogunnaike et al [18] who reported that cadmium intake caused decrease in water intake which could be attributed to the depression of thirst centre located in the lateral hypothalamus [17]
Summary
Renal disease has been found to be the ninth leading cause of death [1] and renal failure is one of the most common clinical symptoms [2]. Environmental pollution is a serious cause for concern nowadays and the exposure of humans to heavy metals released into the environment by several sources produces deleterious and lethal effects [4]. The four main groups of environmental pollutants are radio nucleotides, pesticides, petroleum hydrocarbons and heavy metals with heavy metals being the most dangerous source [5]. Cadmium (Cd) is a non-essential heavy metal known to possess toxic effects on living things [6, 7]. Cadmium can be found almost anywhere and its toxicity is of concern to industrial workers and all humans due to its use in some
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