Abstract
Piper guineense fruit is known for its nutritive and medicinal values. This study evaluated the biochemical effect of the methanol fruit extract of P. guineense on male albino rats. A total of thirty-eight (38) adult male Sprague-Dawley albino rats were used for the study. Eighteen of the male rats were used for the acute toxicity study, while twenty (20) male rats were randomly assigned into four groups (A, B, C and D) of 5 rats each, for the sub-acute toxicity study. Groups B, C and D were the treatment groups, while group A was the control group and received only distilled water (10 mg/ml). Groups B, C and D received 10 mg/kg, 200 mg/kg and 400 mg/kg body weight of the fruit extract respectively. Administration of the 100 mg/kg, 200 mg/kg and 400 mg/kg of methanol fruit extract of P. guineense led to a significant (P < 0.05) increase in the serum ALT and AP on day 7 of the experiment. Throughout the experimental period, 200 mg/kg of the extract caused a significant (P < 0.05) increase in serum total proteins and globulin. Group D rats had significantly (P < 0.05) lower serum total cholesterol on day 28 of the experiment. The 100 mg/kg of the extract caused a significant increase in serum urea and creatinine on day 21 of the experiment. Oral administration of methanol fruit extract of P. guineense caused mild hepatocellular injury, hyperproteinemia, hyperglobulinemia, hypocholesterolemia, and mild renal toxicity.
Highlights
Phytomedicine is becoming increasingly popular with little regard to the possible toxic potentials (Ekere et al, 2013)
Sub-acute toxicity study Serum biochemistry tests On day 7 of treatment, groups B, C and D had significantly (P < 0.05) higher serum ALT activity when compared to the group A (Table 1)
It can be concluded that the oral administration of methanolic seed extract of P. guineense caused mild hepatotocellular injury, hyperproteinemia, hyperglobulinemia, hypocholesterolemia and mild renal toxicity and longer time is needed to investigate the long-term effects
Summary
Phytomedicine is becoming increasingly popular with little regard to the possible toxic potentials (Ekere et al, 2013). Piper guineense, which is native to tropical West Africa, belongs to the family Piperaceae or Sapotaceae (Macmillan, 1984; Iwu, 1993). It is used as an aromatic spice in various dishes to which it imparts “pungency” (Udoh et al, 1996). The plant leaves and fruit are used for various phytomedical purposes. The plant fruit is used for weight control because it is free of fat and cholesterol (Duvauchelle, 2011), and as an antibiotic (Mbongue et al, 2005), as an analgesic (Mbongue et al, 2005), and as a febrifuge (Ekanem et al, 2010). It is needful to investigate the effects of oral administration of graded doses of methanol fruit extract of P
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