Abstract:
The use of plants for medicine and food is as old as man and herbal medications have been used for relief of symptoms of diseases. Ageratum conyzoides. L has a long history of tradomedical uses in the treatment of various diseases. The modulatory and the metabolic effect of n-Hexane (lipid) extract of A. conyzoides leaf (ACL) on selected tissues in male Albino rats were determined in this study. A. conyzoides leaf lipid (ACL) was extracted from its leaf with n-Hexane. The quantitative evaluation of lipid extracts was determined using Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Adult male albino rats were randomly selected into 5 groups of 6 rats each. Group 1 (control) was fed normal diet only, group 2 (reference) was administered with olive oil and groups 3 to 5 were fed varied dosage (100, 200 and 400mg/kg/ BW) of ACL extracts respectively. All administrations were done orally for 21 days after which the dietary effects of ACL was determined on the serum lipid profile and some biochemical parameters in selected tissues of male albino rats using Randox kits. GC-MS result reveal that ACL have -6:-3 PUFA ratio of 2.1 and other fatty acids of biochemical relevance (such as Palmitic acid; 37.115g, Linoleic acid; 32.44g and Linolenic acid; 15.45g) hence, causes a significance decrease (p<0.05) in serum lipid profiles (such as TC, TG, VLDL and LDL) and a significant (p<0.05) increase in serum HDL when compared with the control and reference group. ACL also increased the concentration of GSH and activities of GST, CAT and SOD (which are markers of oxidative stress) significantly (p<0.05). ACL decreased the activities of liver function indices (ALP, AST, ALT and GGT) significantly (p<0.05), there were significant reductions in the levels of total bilirubins, and unconjugated bilirubins, but elevated direct bilirubins. Kidney creatinine and urea nitrogen levels were reduced when compared with the control group and reference group, with respect to concentration of the extract. These results revealed that ACL improved serum lipid profile and enhances the activities
of liver function enzymes. These establishes the fact that ACL have therapeutic potentials and could be included in the list of agents for the prevention and management of ailments and diseases associated with liver and kidney in the future.
