Investigating the Effect of Oral Consumption of Tear Assafoetida on Hepatic, Renal, Cardiac, and Blood Biochemical Parameters of Rats

Abstract

Introduction: Today it has been documented that herbal medicines like synthetic drugs have side effects. The aim of his study was that whether assafoetida in doses used in most of previous studies have any effect on hepatic, renal, cardiac and blood biochemical parameters of rats. Methods: Forty male Wistar rats, with average weighting of 300 grams, were divided into five groups of eight in each. The first group was considered as control group and groups 2-5 as the pretreatment groups that were pre-treatmented by 12.5, 25, 50 and 100 mg/kg tear assafoetida for 30 days, respectively. Then, blood samples were collected for measurement of biochemical parameters of liver (AST, ALT, ALP), kidney (Urea, Cr), cardiac (CPK) and blood coagulation (Pt, Ptt). Blood pressures were also recorded through inserting a cannula into the carotid artery. Lead II of electrocardiogram was used to monitor electrical activity of the heart. Data was analyzed by one-way analysis of variance. Results: The plasma level of AST, CPK and Ptt significantly reduced in pretreatment groups with assafoetida (P<0.05). With increasing the dose of assafoetida, plasma urea concentration reduced and plasma Cr concentration and all blood pressures increased insignificantly. Conclusion: The findings of this study suggest that low doses of tear assafoetida (25 mg/kg) does not probably have any side effects and even maybe useful for health, but at higher doses (100 mg/kg) it may lead to complications. Hence, there is a need for further studies to answer some questions that arose from this study