Short term toxicity study on water melon rind extract
2018
OLUSOLA LADOKUN | ABIOLA AMINU | OKIKIOLA DUROSINLORUN | OLUWATOSIN AROJOJOYE
We carried out sub chronic toxicity study on water melon rind to investigate its safety for consumption and also its effect on the liver and kidney of rats. Twenty rats were used for the experiment and were divided into four groups with five animals per group. Group A animals served as the control, whereas groups B, C and D animals were orally administered 500, 1500 and 3500 mg/kg extract of water melon rind, respectively, for 28 days. The activity of alanine amino transferase (ALT) and aspartate amino transferase (AST) were determined in the serum of the rats. Levels of malondialdehyde (index of lipid peroxidation), glutathione (GSH) and activities of antioxidant enzymes – superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase were evaluated in the liver and kidney of the rats. There was no significant increase in the activity of ALT and AST in the serum of rats administered the extract when compared with control group. Also, there was no induction of lipid peroxidation and no significant change in glutathione concentration and activities of superoxide dismutase and catalase in rats administered the extract compared with control group. These results show that water melon rind extract does not have adverse effect on the liver and kidney of the rats and may therefore be safe for human consumption. However there is a need for further study on the rind of water melon in order to investigate its medicinal properties and also its effect on other organs.
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