Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Artigo Acesso aberto Produção Nacional Revisado por pares

BIBTEX RIS

Liver morphology and morphometry and plasma biochemical parameters of Wistar rats that received leaf infusion of Rudgea viburnoides Benth. (Rubiaceae)

2009; Instituto de Tecnologia do Paraná (Tecpar); Volume: 52; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1590/s1516-89132009000200018

1678-4324

Juliana Castro Monteiro, Sérgio Luís Pinto da Matta, Fabrícia de Souza Predes, Tânia Toledo de Oliveira,

Alcohol Consumption and Health Effects

Rudgea viburnoides leaves are widely used in popular Brazilian medicine as a diuretic, antirheumatic, hypotensive and blood depurative tea. The present study was carried out to investigate the effects of this infusion on the liver and on the plasma biochemical parameters of Wistar rats. Two groups received the R. viburnoides leaf infusion at a daily dose of 10 or 20g dry-leaves/L water, during 40 days. The histopathological analysis did not show degenerated areas or infiltration of leucocytes. Hepatic morphometry showed accumulation of fat in the hepatocytes of the treated groups. There was no significant change in the plasma levels of urea, creatinin, uric acid, direct bilirubin, cholesterol, total proteins, albumin, gamma glutamyl tranferase (gamma-GT), alanine transaminase (ALT), aspartate transaminase (AST), chlorine, phosphate and calcium. A significant reduction in the plasma levels of triacylglycerol (TAG) occurred in the group that received the higher dose.