ABSTRACT
Phyllanthus amarus is a medicinal plant with a broad range of therapeutic benefits. Many scientific papers have been written to show the effectiveness of this herb against ailments such as gastrophies, genital infections, fever, wounds, jaundice and more, including cancers. In the present study, the effects of dichloromethane extracts of the herb Phyllanthus amarus on 1,2- Dimethylhydrazine-induced colon cancer in Swiss albino mice was evaluated. 15 male mice of weights 19g to 30g were acclimatized for a week and randomized into 3 groups (5 mice per group). Group O (- DMH) as positive control, Group B (DMH, 350mg/kg body weight of dichloromethane extract of P. amarus) as treated mice, and group M (+ DMH) as negative control. DMH was administered with an oral dolphin gavage with administered doses at 1% body weight of animals), lasting for 8 weeks (with a two-day interval). The plant extract was administered daily with the aid of an oral gavage for two weeks immediately after cancer induction. In this study, the antioxidant parameter, (Catalase U/mg wet tissue) of control (11.66±0.78) was significantly different from untreated group M (1.19±0.268), (as shown in the result), there was also a significant difference when compared to the treated groups. However, results from other antioxidant parameters SOD (U/mg wet tissue), GPX (U/mg wet tissue), GSH (GSH/g wet tissue), showed no significant difference between the treated and untreated groups. The activity of the lipid peroxidation marker, MDA (M/mg wet tissue) revealed insignificant difference at p<0.05 with the highest MDA activity seen in the treated (5.83±0.323), and the least in control (0.209± 0.015). For liver function test, ALT(u/l) and AST(u/l) concentration in the tissue (liver) homogenate revealed a significant difference between the control, treated and untreated groups, however for AST concentration in liver homogenate no significant difference at p<0.05 across all three groups. The kidney function test marker urea showed a significant difference with control (0.717±0.037) having the least urea concentration and the untreated group having the highest urea concentration (1.75±0.05) in kidney homogenate, sodium ion concentration also showed significant difference between the control (114.51±5.79) and treated group (197.5±4.65), however creatinine (mg/dl), potassium(mmol/l) and bicarbonate(mmol/l) ions concentrations showed insignificant differences at p<0.05. There was a significant decrease in the weight of the untreated animals (initial wt23.83±1.40, final wt-21.00±1.16) when compared to control (initial wt-25.17±1.30, final wt27.20±1.51), and treated animals (initial wt- 21.00±0.45, final wt-19.33±1.12). The results gotten from the molecular markers, caspase 9 (ng/ml), an apoptotic marker showed significant difference at p<0.05 across all the groups with the highest activity in the treated group (3.116±0.045) and the least activity in the untreated group (2.586±0.128), also, interleukin 6 (pg/ml) an inflammatory marker showed significance between treated (6.9605±0.039) and control (7.434±1.353) but insignificance between negative control (6.335±0.549) and treated (7.434±1.353). Finally, results obtained reveals that DCM extract has some ameliorative effect against colorectal cancer and a strong hepatoprotective effect.
