Mitigating potential and antioxidant properties of aqueous seed extract of Leea guineensis against dichlorovos-induced toxicity in Wistar rats

This work was carried out to access the mitigating potential of Leea guineensis aqueous seed extract against dichlorovos (DDVP)-induced toxicity in Wistar rats for ten days. Twenty Wistar albino rats (weighing 90 to 106 g) were divided into four groups (Normal, DDVP-induced untreated, DDVP-induced treated with 200 mg/kg of L. guineensis seed and DDVP-induced treated with 400 mg/kg L. guineensis seed by oral gavage). DDVP was induced in the rats as a source of the main drinking water (5% v/v). The levels of malondialdehyde (MDA), total protein, albumin, bilirubin and the activities of glutathione peroxidase (GPx), superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) were determined. The results revealed that exposure of rats to the pesticide water (DDVP) resulted in significant increase (p<0.05) in the levels of MDA and bilirubin with significant decrease (p<0.05) in the levels of total protein, albumin and the activities of GPx, CAT, SOD, ALT and AST, while administration with L. guineensis seed showed ameliorative effects in all biochemical parameters evaluated. This showed that treatment with aqueous seed extract of L. guineensis (200 and 400 mg/kg), most especially 400 mg/kg could ameliorate the biochemical indices related to liver toxicity in the animals.   Key words: Leea guineensis, dichlorovos, pesticide, antioxidant enzymes, oxidative stress.