Abstract This study was carried out to investigate the effect of Andrographis paniculata leaf extract of ethanol, methanol and petroleum ether on serum electrolytes, urea, and serum enzymes as indices of toxicological importance in wistar rats. Eighty (80) female wistar rats weighing between 225-230 g were used for thee study. Rats were divided into ten (10) study groups and designated as; non-diarrhea control (NDC), diarrhea control (DC), diarrhea orthodox control (DO) and diarrhea extract treated groups (DERE, DERM, DERP) receiving varying extract concentrations of 200mg/kg and 400mg/kg body weight respectively. Animals were sacrificed after seven (7) days of experimental period and blood was collected for biochemical analysis. The extracts were found to produce significant antidiarrheal activity in dose dependent manner. The ethanol and methanol extracts were found to be more effective against castor oil induced diarrhea on experiment rat at the dose of 400 mg/kg body weight. Body weight indices obtained from this study revealed a decrease (p<0.05) in body weight in the extract treated group when compared with non-diarrhea induced control with an attendant increase (P<0.05) when compared with diarrhea control. Phytochemical screening detected biological important metabolites including tannins and steroids while serum electrolyte level such as sodium and chlorine increase in the extract treated group when compared with the diarrhea control group (Group B) but significantly decrease (p<0.05) when compared to non-diarrhea control group (group A). Serum liver enzymes; ALT, AST, ALP, LDH, and GGT were increased in the extract treated group when compared to the non-diarrhea control group (Group A) but a statistically decrease (p<0.05) was observed in comparison with the diarrhea control group (Group B). In conclusion, data generated from this study show that Andrographis paniculata leaf extracts possesses anti-diarrhea anti-hepatic activities in castor oil induced diarrhea in rats.
Keywords Phytochemical Analysis, Castor Oil, Serum Enzymes and Electrolyte Level.