Protection by Methanol and Flavonoid-rich Leaf Extracts of Talinum triangulae Against Lead-induced Toxicity in Rats

Background and Objective: Lead is an environmental pollutant. The painful invasive chelation therapy makes it exigent to continue the protracted treatment against lead toxicity. This study is aimed at evaluating the protective effect of the methanol and flavonoid-rich leaf extracts of T. triangulae on lead-induced toxicity. Materials and Methods: Thirtysix male albino rats were used and were distributed into five groups; A, B, C D and E. Groups D and E were further subdivided into three; D 1 , D 2 , D 3 , E1, E 2 and E 3 . Both groups and subgroups contained four rats each. All groups except A were intraperitoneally injected a single dose of 50 mg kgG 1 b.wt., of lead chloride and commenced treatment within 30 min of lead injection. Group A and B were given distilled water and 50 mg kgG 1 b.wt., of lead chloride only, respectively. Group C was treated only with 40 mg kgG 1 vitamin C while groups D 1 , D 2 , D 3 and E 1 , E 2 , E 3 were treated with 50, 100 and 200 mg kgG 1 b.wt., of methanol and flavonoid-rich leaf extract of T. triangulae, respectively for 14 days once daily. Blood were collected for determination of antioxidant indices in plasma using standard method and data were analyzed using SPSS version 20. Results: The result showed that methanol and flavonoid-rich extracts significantly (p<0.05) decrease the Malondialdehyde (MDA) level that was triggered by the increase oxidative stress when treated with lead. The levels of glutathione and activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT) and glutathione peroxidase (GPX) were increased significantly when treated with the extracts.