IN VIVO EVALUATION OF THE EFFECTS INDUCED BY HAWTHORN (CRATAEGI SP.) EXTRACT IN RATS, IN TWO EXPERIMENTAL DIET MODELS

Abstract

The present research aimed to evaluate the effects induced by hawthorn extract on biochemical parameters in two experimental diet models (hyperlipidic and hyperglucidic), correlated with cytotoxicity and embryotesting performed on Daphnia species, and histopathological evaluation of changes induced in the liver parenchyma. Research showed a dose-dependent variability of lethality (Daphnia bioassay) at a dose of 761.1 mg/mL at 48 hours, with D. pulex showing a higher sensitivity; the extract was shown to influence acceleration of embryogenesis with induction of certain morphological changes (elongation of the column of the appendix). On the biochemical constants in the experimental groups treated with hawthorn extract, an increase in HDLcholesterol by 57.62-73.90%, a decrease in LDL-cholesterol by 9.51-11.43%, triglycerides by 3.16-12.12% was observed; the oligoelements analysed showed a statistically significant evolution for sodium in the hyperglucidic with hawthorn group, for a p-value of 0.0262, whereas for potassium, the group with hyperglucidic diet had a p-value of 0.0062.