ABSTRACT

 Many plants and plant extracted products have been screened for their medicinal purpose; some have antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antidiabetic, and antiulcer effects. An example of these plants is Urtrica dioica. In this Study the effect of urtrica dioica against doxorubicin induced cardiotoxicity, a total oftwenty four (24) rats were used. The rats were randomized into (4) four groups of six (6) rats each, which received varying doses of Doxorubicin, Doxorubicin+ low UD, Doxorubicin + high UD and food and water only (control) for two (2) weeks, orally. The treatment proceeded for 21 days and the animals were sacrificed, the heart were collected on a plain bottle and were preserved with normal saline, the sample was analyzed on parameters such as Alkaline Phosphatase (ALP), C- relative protein (CRP), Gluthionione perioxidase (GPx) and Sodium (Na). These were performed using One way analysis of variance (ANOVA) followed by HOC LSD the significance was accepted at (P<0.05). The data were expressed as mean ± S.E of the mean using bar charts. Comparism was made between the treated groups (Normal control, Doxorubicin+ low UD, Doxorubicin+high UD and Doxorubicin). Fig 4.1 shows that the mean of ALP concentration in the groups treated with UD which includes group 3 (27.92±1.68) and group 4 (34.16±0.51) shows a significant (p<0.05) increase when compared to the control (21.57±0.91) groupl. Fig 4.2 shows that the mean of Sodium concentration in the group treated with UD which includes group 3 (70.39±21.40), group 4 (44.10±l8.93) shows a significant (p<0.05) increase when compared with (control) groupl (24.69±3.31). the group treated with high UD that is group 4 (44.10±18.93) and that ofthe control (groupl) (24.69±3.31) showed a significant (p<0.05) decrease when compared with the group treated with low UD that is group 3 (70.39±21.40) while the group treated with high UD that is group 4 (44.10±18.93) shows a significant (p<0.05) decrease when compared to the group3 (70.39±21.40). Fig 4.3 shows that the mean of CRP concentration in the group treated with UD which includes group 3 (1.09±0.02), group 4 (0.91±0.06) and those treated with only doxorubicin that is group 2 (1.06±0.07) shows a significant (p<0.05) increase when compared to the control that is group 1 (0.81±0.03). while group 4 (0.91±0.06) which is treated with high UD showed a significant (p<0.05) decrease when compared to group 2 (1.06±0.07) and group 3 (1.09±0.02 Fig 4.4 shows that the mean concentration of GPx in doxorubicin i.e. group 2 (18.28±2.20) shows a significant (p<0.05) decrease when compared with the control (group 1) (33.65±1.24). group 4 (36.37±0.85) shows nonsignificant (p>0.05) difference when compared to the control (33.65±1.24). Group 3 (95.65±2.80) which is treated with low UD shows a very high significant (p<0.05) increase when compared to other groups. This work suggested that Urtrica dioica has a tendency of inducing cardiotoxicity in higher concentration and also reduce it in low concentration according to the result and via the generation of reactive species in the biological system which can be assessed by estimating the cardiac function biomarkers and oxidative stress biomarkers. I thereby recommended that more research should be done on Ulrica dioica to observe its activity and mechanism of action.