Effects of Medicago sativa on some serum biochemical metabolites in rats

This study was aimed at determining effects of Medicago sativa plants on body and organs weights, serum estradiol, progesterone, total proteins, total cholesterol, the liver and kidney functions in immature female rats. For this purpose, low (250 mg/kg) and high (500 mg/kg) doses of ethanolic extract of M. sativa plants were given to immature female rats for 22 days. Body weight of rats of control group was higher compared to the rats given low dose of the extract (114.40 plus minus 5.35 versus 93.20 plus minus 7.57g; P less than 0.05). Mean ovarian weight was significantly higher (P less than 0.05) in rats of both the treatment groups (18.80 plus minus 2.94 mg for low dose and 22.80 plus minus 2.94 mg for high dose) compared to the control group (9.99 plus minus 2.08 mg). The uterine weight of rats of control group was significantly higher compared to the rats given low dose of the extract. Serum progesterone concentrations were higher in both treatment groups (49.04 plus minus 6.67 and 40.20 plus minus 11.92 ng/mL for low and high dose groups respectively) compared to controls (21.76 plus minus 4.35 ng/mL), which was assumed to be due to increased follicular development, followed by ovulation and corpus luteum formation or leutinization of Graafian follicles under estrogen-like activity of the plant extract. Serum total proteins concentration was significantly higher (P<0.05) in rats given high dose (65.01 plus minus 4.15 g/L) than control group (48.46 plus minus 2.93 g/L) or the low dose group (51.95 plus minus 4.15 g/L). Serum total cholesterol concentration was the highest in the control group (100.90 plus minus 1.89 mg/dL) and lowest in rats given low dose of the extract (74.96 plus minus 0.65 mg/dL), the difference was significant. There were no differences in the liver or kidney weights, serum urea concentrations and ALT activities among rats of the three groups. However, serum AST activity was lower in rats of both treatment groups compared to control rats. Thus, ethanolic extract of M. sativa plants exhibited estrogen like activity, increased serum total proteins, decreased serum total cholesterol and had no adverse effects on the liver or kidney functions in immature female rats.