Hypolipidemic and toxicological potential of aqueous extract of Rauvolfia vomitoria afzel root in wistar rats

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the hypolipidemic potential of aqueous extract of Rauvolfia vomitoria root and assess its toxicological effect in selected tissues of rats. Aqueous extract of Rauvolfia vomitoria root was administered to wistar rats daily at 24 h interval at a dosage of 200 mg kg-1 b.wt. following which the rats were sacrificed after receiving 1, 3, 5, 10, 20 and 30 daily oral doses. Administration of the extract produced significant reduction (p<0.05) in the concentration of the Low-density Lipoprotein Cholesterol (LDL-C), triglyceride and atherogenic indices while a dose-dependent significant increase (p<0.05) occurred in the High-density Lipoprotein Cholesterol (HDL-C) concentration. Significant changes were also observed (p<0.05) in the activities of alkaline phosphatase (ALP) and acid phosphatase (ACP) in all the tissues studied except small intestine. There were significant fluctuations (p<0.05) in the activities of aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and alanine aminotransferase (ALT) in the tissues except in the kidney. The results suggest that aqueous extract of Rauvolfia vomitoria root possesses hypolipidemic potential but caused alterations in the concentration of the enzymes studied and so may not be completely safe at the dose used in this study.