<i><span style="font-size:21.5pt;mso-bidi-font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"; color:black">In vivo </span></i><span style="font-size:21.5pt;mso-bidi-font-size: 14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black">radioprotective effect of <i>Moringa oleifera </i>leaves </span>

Abstract

<span style="font-size: 15.5pt;mso-bidi-font-size:8.5pt;font-family:" times="" new="" roman","serif";="" color:black"="">Radioprotective property of <i>Moringa oleifera </i>leaves was investigated in healthy adult Swiss albino mice. Animals were injected (ip) with 150 mg/kg body weight of 50% methanolic extract (ME) of <i><span style="font-size:16.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:9.0pt;font-family:" times="" new="" roman","serif";="" color:black"="">M. </span></i><i><span style="font-size:15.5pt;mso-bidi-font-size: 8.5pt;font-family:" times="" new="" roman","serif";color:black"="">oleifera </span></i><span style="font-size:15.5pt;mso-bidi-font-size:8.5pt;font-family:" times="" new="" roman","serif";="" color:black"="">leaves, as a single dose, or in 5 daily fractions of 30 mg/kg each, and exposed to whole body gamma irradiation (RT, 4 Gy) 1 hr later. Five animals from each group were sacrificed at 1, 2 and 7 days after treatment. Bone marrow protection was studied by scoring aberrations in metaphase chromosomes and micronucleus induction in polychromatic erythrocytes and normochromatic erythrocytes. Pretreatment with a single dose of 150 mg/kg ME significantly reduced the percent aberrant cells to 2/3rd that of RT alone group on day 1 and brought the values to normal range by day 7 post-irradiation. A similar effect was also seen for the micro nucleated cells. Fractionated administration of ME (30 mg/kg × 5) gave a higher protection than that given by the same dose administered as a single treatment. ME also inhibited the Fenton reaction-generated free radical activity <i>in vitro </i>in a concentration dependent manner. These results demonstrate that pretreatment with the methanolic leaf extract of <i><span style="font-size:16.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt;font-family:" times="" new="" roman","serif";color:black"="">M. </span></i><i><span style="font-size:15.5pt;mso-bidi-font-size:8.5pt;font-family:" times="" new="" roman","serif";="" color:black"="">oleifera </span></i><span style="font-size:15.5pt;mso-bidi-font-size: 8.5pt;font-family:" times="" new="" roman","serif";color:black"="">confers significant radiation protection to the bone marrow chromosomes in mice and this may lead to the higher 30 day&nbsp; survival after lethal whole body irradiation.

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