title: Protective effects of Peganum harmala extracts on thiourea-induced diseases in adult male rat.
abstract: Cancers and hepatoprotective prevention using traditional medicines have attracted increasing interest. The aim of our study was to characterize the putative protective effects of ethanol and chloroform extracts of Peganum harmala on thiourea-induced diseases in adult male rat. We seek to determine the effects of these plant extracts on body weight, thyroid and endocrine cancer parameters. In addition the putative hepatoprotective effect was checked by the determination of aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and alanine aminotransferase (ALT) activities and the bilirubin level in the blood. Our data show that ethanol and chloroform extracts of Peganum harmala protected the animal against the carcinogenic effects induced by thiourea since neuron-specific enolase (NSE) and thyroglobulin (TG) levels were back to the normal range. In addition, the observed-hepatocytotoxicity after thiourea treatment was greatly reduced (AST and ALT activities were respectively 270 IU/l and 60 IU/l and in the same order of magnitude as in the untreated rats) as well as the bilirubin levels (6 micromol/l) especially for animals receiving the choroform preparation. Therefore we may suggest that extracts of Peganum harmala are efficient to reduce the toxicity induced by thiourea in male rat as far as the above parameters are concerned.
authors.affiliation: Animal Ecophysiology, Faculty of Sciences, Sfax, CHU H. Bourguiba, Sfax, Tunisie, France.
authors.forename: Khaled
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hamden
authors.forename: Hatem
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Masmoudi
authors.forename: Feriel
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Ellouz
authors.forename: Adelfatteh
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: ElFeki
authors.forename: Serge
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Carreau
mesh_terms: D000410:Alanine Transaminase / Q000097:blood; D000818:Animals; D001219:Aspartate Aminotransferases / Q000097:blood; D001663:Bilirubin / Q000097:blood; D001835:Body Weight / Q000187:drug effects*; D002725:Chloroform; D000431:Ethanol; D008297:Male; D009377:Multiple Endocrine Neoplasia / Q000097:blood / Q000139:chemically induced / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000201:enzymology; D032443:Peganum / Q000737:chemistry*; D010751:Phosphopyruvate Hydratase / Q000097:blood; D008517:Phytotherapy; D010936:Plant Extracts / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D013890:Thiourea / Q000494:pharmacology*; D013954:Thyroglobulin / Q000097:blood; D013964:Thyroid Neoplasms / Q000097:blood / Q000139:chemically induced / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000201:enzymology; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D010936:Plant Extracts; D000431:Ethanol; D002725:Chloroform; D013954:Thyroglobulin; D001219:Aspartate Aminotransferases; D000410:Alanine Transaminase; D010751:Phosphopyruvate Hydratase; D013890:Thiourea; D001663:Bilirubin