Extracts of Plants used as Traditional Medicines have Toxic Effect on the Liver and Kidney

Vegetables and fruits are natural sources of useful antioxidants.Plants and their extracts are widely used as traditional medicine.In Southeast Asia region, Syzygium polyanthum, Octomeles sumatrana and Hylocereus polyrhizus are used in treatment of diabetes mellitus.This study was designed to investigate the safe use of extracts of these plants on liver and kidney.Experimental female rats were divided into nine groups.One group was normal non diabetic control given normal saline; four groups were normal non diabetic animals of which three were treated with plant extracts, while one group, the control, was daily orally treated with vitamin E (250mg/kg body weight).The remaining four groups were diabetic animals (one group was control animals treated with normal saline and three groups were treated with plant extracts).The plant extracts were administered for two weeks as daily oral single doses.Doses of Octomeles sumatrana and Syzygium polyanthum were 1g/kg body weight while that of Hylocereus polyrhizus was 3g/kg body weight.Normal and diabetic rats treated with plant extracts demonstrated toxic changes in their liver and kidney.Liver showed damaged hepatocytes with macrophage infiltration.Kidney displayed interstitial bleeding, arterial and arteriolar wall thickening and glomerulosclerosis.Findings in this study go with the previously published reports on the damaging effect of exogenous toxins and plants extracts on the liver and kidney.This work demonstrated the importance of safety studies on herbal extracts.