Evaluation of toxicity, nephroprotective and hepatoprotective activities of Argan oil on CCl4-induced nephrotoxicity and hepatotoxicity in Wistar rats

Abstract

In traditional therapy, Argania spinosa L. seeds oil used as a nephroprotective and hepatoprotective agent. The present work aims to investigate the acute toxicity of unroasted Argan oil, and studied the nephroprotective and the hepatoprotective activity of both oils Roasted (Roil) and unroasted Argan oil (UnRoil) on CCl 4 -induced liver and kidney damages in Wistar rats. Animals were divided into five equal groups; Control and CCl 4 groups are received only distilled water (10 mL/Kg/day). Control positive group received 50 mg/Kg/day of Silymarin. Roil and UnRoil groups treated with 2 mL/Kg/day of Roil and UnRoil. One week after each pretreatment, the rats are injected intraperitoneally with 1 mL/kg/week of CCl 4 . The treatment has lasted for 15 days. The body weight, urinary volume, water, and food intake were measured at the end of the treatment. Then, the animals are sacrificed; the blood and the liver samples were collected for determining the liver weight ratio and biochemical parameters. UnRoil did not show any sign of toxicity up to 5 mL/Kg. In Roil and UnRoil groups the water intake, ALT, AST, total and direct bilirubin, triglycerides, LDL, plasmatic creatinine, urea, uric acid, and MDA levels are reduced significantly as compared with the CCl 4 group. However, body weight,liver weight ratio, food intake, urine urea, urinary creatinine, hepatic glycogen, and GSH levels showed a significant increase compared to the CCl 4 group. Roil and UnRoil showed important nephroprotective and hepatoprotective effects against CCl 4 . Although, the roasting process does not influence the ability of Argan seed oils towards these activities. Keywords: