Abstract

Various parts of Phoenix dactylifera (date palm) are used in traditional medicine to treat various disorders such as fever, abdominal troubles, etc., in different parts of the world. A preliminary phytochemical screening of the aqueous fruit extract of Phoenix dactylifera (AFPD) revealed the presence of alkaloids, tannins, saponins, flavonoids and carbohydrates. This study was designed to investigate the effects of oral administration of AFPD on the histology of the liver and kidney in Wistar rats. Thirty-nine Wistar rats were divided into two groups-control (three rats) and treatment (thirty-six rats). The animals in experimental group were further categorised for two phase study (eighteen rats divided into three groups; six rats/group for each phase). In the first phase, the three groups (A, B and C) were administered AFPD (10, 100 and 1000 mg/kg, oral, respectively). In the second phase, the three groups (D, E and F) were administered AFPD (1600, 2900 and 5000 mg/kg, oral, respectively). In both phases, after 24 h of AFPD administration, three rats of the six in each group were sacrificed and the other three sacrificed after 21 days. Histopathological examinations of liver and kidney sections of the experimental animals were compared with the control. No mortality or signs of toxicity was observed in the experimental animals upon administration of AFPD, even at doses as high as 5000 mg/kg, which was confirmed by mild pathological changes with remarkable recovery after 21 days. This result demonstrates that the LD<50 of AFPD is greater than 5000 mg/kg and is relatively safe.

Keywords:

Histology, kidney, LD, liver, oral, Phoenix dactylifera, wistar rat,

References

Competing interests

The authors have no competing interests.

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The authors have no competing interests.