Preventive Effect of Methanol Leaf Extract of Ficus exasperata (sandpaper tree) on 1,2-Dimethylhydrazine-Induced Liver Damage in male Wistar Rats

The major organ responsible for metabolism in mammals is the liver. The liver is the center for both xenobiotics and drug metabolism. Herbal-induced and xenobiotics-induced hepatotoxicity is common but the actual frequency is hard to determine due to underreporting. Consequently, the objective of this paper was to investigate the preventive effect of methanol Leaf Extract of Ficus exasperata (sandpaper tree) on 1,2-dimethylhydrazine-induced liver damage in male Wistar rats using appropriate standard procedures. Data from the liver biomarkers assayed, show that the plant extract was not toxic to the liver. Aspartate transaminase activity of rats in all the groups, even the group that received the highest dose of the extract, group 4 (45.71 ± 4.66 U/I) was not significantly different from the control group (39.5 ± 4.48 U/I). This same trend was observed with alanine transaminase activity and Bilirubin levels. The extract aided the synthetic function of the liver as seen in the albumin level of rats in group 4 (48.44 ± 2.37 U/I) which was significantly different from the control group (36.86 ± 3.66 U/I). In other sets of animals given xenobiotics; the xenobiotics illicit a significant increase (p < 0.5) in malondialdehyde level in group 3 (3.07 ± 0.3 mmol/l) animals compared to other groups. The enzymatic antioxidants were also significantly increased in other groups compared to group 3. The histology depicts that the xenobiotic altered the normal liver architecture but the plant was able to mitigate the effect only in the post-treated group. Ficus exasperata is relatively safe in the treatment of liver-related diseases.