Investigating the Preventive and Therapeutic Role of Costus afer in Acetaminophen Induced Liver Toxicity

Abstract

The objective of this study was to determine the prophylatic and therapeutic role of Costus afer in acetaminophen poisoning in rats. The rats were equally divided into two groups; pre-treatment group and post-treatment group with each group have five sub-groups (negative control (NC), positive control (PC), A, B and C) of 5 rats each. NC was without any treatment; PC was treated with 800mg/kg of acetaminophen; A was treated with 200mg/kg of Costus afer; B was treated with 400mg/kg of Costus afer; C was treated with 800mg/kg of Costus afer. In the pre-treatment group, the PC was induced with acetaminophen 28 days after administration of distilled water, and “A”, “B” and “C” were induced with acetaminophen 28 days after Costus afer treatment while in the post-treatment group, the PC was induced with acetaminophen before commencing on 28 days administration of distilled water, and “A”, “B” and “C” were induced with acetaminophen before commencing on 28 days Costus afer treatment. After the treatment period, the rats were sacrificed and sample and liver organ were collected for laboratory analysis for liver enzymes and histological studies. The results showed that there was no significant change (p>0.05) in liver enzymes in the A, B, C subgroups of the pre-treatment group after acetaminophen induction. In the post-treatment group, there was a significant decrease in the liver enzymes in A, B and C subgroups after Costus afer treatment. This study has proven that Costus afer has the potential to not only prevent acetaminophen liver toxicity but to also treat hepatotoxicity inflicted by acetaminophen in rats.