Comparative Effect of Ginger (Zingiber officinale) Supplement on Hepato-renal Damages Induced by Acetaminophen Toxicity in Wistar Rats

Background: Acetaminophen toxicity is one of the widespread causes of both planned and unplanned health related issues in the world today. It is a familiar cause of liver and kidney damage particularly in adolescents and children.

Aims: With the growing focus in the mitigating and therapeutic roles of herbal drugs in toxicity studies, it is perceptible to investigate the comparative, prophylactic and curative effect of the ginger supplement on acetaminophen-induced liver and kidney damage using wistar rats as model. Methodology:

Study Design: Twenty (20) adult male wistar rats weighing185 g-220 g was obtained from animal house of the department of Pharmacology University of Port Harcourt were divided into four groups having five rats each.

Methodology: Twenty adult wistar rats were divided into four (4) groups of five animals each and treated orally as follows: Group A (normal control) received distilled water (7days), group B received 1000mg/kg acetaminophen (APAP) (2 days). Group C Ginger (GINE+APAP) received ginger supplements 500mg/kg respectively one hour before administration of APAP for 7 days, whereas group D received APAP (2 days) followed by 500mg/kg Ginger for 5 days (APAP+GINE). At the end of the experiment, animals from different groups were anaesthesized, blood samples collected, liver and kidney tissues dissected and subjected to different biochemical, antioxidants, and histopathological test.

Statistical: Analysis was done using One Way Anova and Tukey’s Post-hoc Test.

Results: APAP caused significant (P<0.05) decrease in creatinine with significant (P<0.01) increase and decrease in liver enzymes and hepatic catalase levels respectively in relation to normal control. Treatment of rats with the ginger supplements attenuated the elevated liver and kidney biochemistry, histopathological alterations by APAP treatment.

Conclusively: The extracts demonstrated therapeutic ability and the herbal drugs may be more effective when use prophylactically than curatively. Further research work is needed to validate the finding.