REMEDIAL POTENTIAL OF MENTHA PIPERITA METHANOLIC EXTRACT ON LEAD ACETATE INCUCED NEPHROTOXICITY

Mentha piperita L. (Pepper mint) a medicinally important plant that is well-known and widely cultivated for its use in flavor, fragrance, medicinal and pharmaceutical application. The medicinal parts of pepper mint are the essential oil composed of menthol and menthone together with several other minor constituents extracted from the aerial parts of the flowering plants, the dried leaves, the fresh flowering plant and the whole plant (Rajinder et al., 2015). This study was aimed at investigating the effect of Methanolic leaf extract of Mentha piperita on lead induced nephrotoxicity, kidney function and histology, on adult male wistar rat. A total of twenty-six (26) adult male wistar rats were obtained for this experiment. 16 adults male wistar rats were used for the experiment while 10 adult male wistar rats were used for Ld50. The rats were divided into 4 groups of four rats each – Group A (Control group received feed and water only), group B (400mg/kg of methanolic leaf extract of Mentha piperita once daily), group C (received 30mg/kg of Lead acetate at 2 days interval) and group D (received 30mg/kg of Lead acetate at 2 days interval and 400mg/kg of methanolic leaf extract of Mentha piperita daily). The experiment lasted for a period of 8 weeks; two (2) weeks for acclimatization and six (6) weeks for administration using the oral gavage method. The result on the body weight changes showed a significant weight gain of those in the control group, and the same was observed for rats exposed to peppermint and those that received lead acetate and peppermint, but no statistically significant difference in the body weight of rats in the lead acetate group (p<0.05). The results of rat serum urea and creatinine levels show no statistically significant difference in the experimental groups when compared to the control group. The findings in this study indicate that Mentha piperita leaf has no renal normative potential and cannot improve renal functions in animals.