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ABSTRACT
Justicia carnea is one of the plants proven to have ethno medicinal and health benefits. Diabetes is a chronic disease with raging effects. Hepatotoxicity can be caused by drugs overdose (in some cases even when the drugs are administered in therapeutic doses). This may damage the liver temporarily or permanently. The aim of this study is to determine hepatoprotective and nephroprotective effects of methanol extract of Justicia carnea. This research was carried out using a total of (48) rats. This research started with the extraction of the plant using methanol. Acute toxicity study was carried out using a total of (12) rats at different dosage of 10mg/kg, 100mg/kg and 1000mg/kg respectively for low dose and high doses of the extract at 1600mg/kg, 2900mg/kg and 5000mg/kg. No mortality ratio was recorded. The research continued using a total of (36) wistar rats were grouped into six groups of six rats, each weighing between 150- 200g. They were acclimatized for 21 days after which, Diabetes was induced by intraperitoneal injection of 50mg/kg of Streptozotocin. Group 1 was used as the control group, group 2 were the diabetic rats but untreated, group 3 includes diabetic rats administered with metformin, group 4 includes diabetic rats administered with 100mg of the methanol extract of justicia carnea, group 5 includes diabetic rats administered with 200mg of the methanol extract of justicia carnea and group 6 involved the diabetic rats administered with 500mg of methanol extract of justicia carnea. The pilot of this study showed that The activities of aspartate transaminase (AST), alanine transaminase (ALT), alkaline phosphatase (ALP) and bilirubin levels gave a significant increase at (p<0.05) when compared to the normal control but decreased when compared to the untreated diabetic rat, while for the kidney function tests creatinine, chloride and urea decreased when compared to the untreated diabetic rat but decreased when compared to the normal control. The results of this study suggest that the methanol extract of Justicia carnea may exhibit hepatoprotective and nephroprotective properties that may be effective in the management of liver toxicity and kidney toxicity respectively.
