Prevention of arsenic toxicity with spirulina and mentha in Rats

Abstract

Mitigation of Arsenic toxicity urgently needed in human being. Present research designed to evaluation of the individual efficacy of spirulina and mentha on arsenic toxicity in rats. Forty-eight female rats of about 3 months of age were used in this experiment. All the 48 rats were obtained by breeding rats in the laboratory animal section of the ICDDRB, Dhaka. At first all 48 rats were randomly grouped into 4 and each group consisted of 12 rats. The experimental trial was conducted for 30 days. Rats of Group T0 were maintained with only normal feed and water ad libitum as control. Other three Group T1, T2 and T3 were treated with sodium arsenite, sodium arsenite with spirulin and sodium arsenite with mentha, respectively. Rats were closely observed daily for 3 times (morning, afternoon and evening) for clinical signs if any of them, during the entire experimental period (from day 0 to day 30) and the findings were recorded. On Day 10, As concentration in lung was found highest in rats of T1 and lowest in control group, and As content was increased sharply in all treated groups and the increments were highly significant (p<0.01) compared to control. The highest As content was observed in liver of T2 group rats and the lowest in control group rats and the As values were sharply and significantly (p<0.01) increased in all treated group rats compared to control group. The values of SGPT, SGOT and creatinine on day 10, 20 and 30 were the highest in T1 and T2 group rats and lowest in control group. All treated group rats showed statistically significant (p<0.05) increased values compared to control rats. Our study suggests that the combination of spirulina and mentha were found more effective in prevention of arsenic toxicity in rat.