Medicinal plants showed promising prospects in managing various diseases due to their rich bioactive content with Piliostigma thonningii being a notable example. This study evaluated the plant’s in vitro, in vivo antioxidant potential, GC-MS profiling of its crude extract as well as the toxicological assessment to ascertain the plants toxicological profile in female wistar rat for a putative lead against uterine fibroids. GC-MS analysis identified 31 compounds, with 1,3-Dioxane-2-pentadecyl- (47.03%) as the most abundant. In vitro assays revealed that the crude extract (CE), chloroform (ChF), & ethyl-acetate fractions (EaF) demonstrated high Ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) & 1,1- diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) activities, while n-hexane (HF) & aqueous fractions (AqF) presented greater Cupric ion Reducing Antioxidant Capacity (CUPRAC) activity. CE and EaF demonstrated low IC50 values for FRAP, while CE and ChF gave the lowest IC50 values for DPPH and finally, HF, showed better CUPRAC compared to the standard. Acute toxicity assessment of the plant’s crude extract was evaluated at varying doses of 500, 1000 and 2000 mg/kg body weight and the results showed no significant changes in endogenous antioxidant enzymes, suggesting the plant does not induce oxidative stress in rats. The extract was not toxic to both kidney and liver as reported in previous studies. Histological analysis revealed normal ovarian architecture at 500 and 1000 mg/kg but tissue distortion at 2000 mg/kg. P. thonningii leaves exhibit high antioxidant activity, aligning with previous reports, and showed no oxidative stress to female wistar rats except at high dose (2000mg/kg b.w). Its high antioxidant potential maybe useful in managing oxidative stress associated with uterine fibroids.
Ogah et al. (Thu,) studied this question.
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