Rejuvenation of Cadmium Induced Electrolyte Imbalance by Mentha Piperita

Health hazards caused by heavy metals have become a great concern to the population. Excessive industrial effluents, pesticide application and biomedical activities load a large amount of metals and metalloids to the environment. Cadmium is one of these, with high rate of bioaccumulation and extreme toxicity at low concentration. Cadmium is exposed to air and water through a number of industrial sources including mining, pesticides, alloys, electroplating, food and cigarette-smoking etc. WHO permitted limit for cadmium in drinking water is 0.005 mg/L whereas in Indian standard it is 0.01 mg/L. In India there are some places where groundwater cadmium concentration is far beyond this limit. Pali, in Rajasthan is a place where this concentration is reported to be 0.224 mg/L. Present study has been designed with the aim of social welfare as well as an eco-healthy approach to find out impact of orally administered cadmium on the hepatic enzymatic system in model organism albino rat and its amelioration by Mentha piperata. Acute and sub-acute cadmium administration induces a significant hyponatremia, hypochloremia and hyperkalemia in albino rat, which were brought to normalcy after pretreatment with Mentha piperata, containing terpenoids as an antioxidant after acute and sub acute treatment. Experimental results therefore reveal protective effect of pretreatment with Mentha piperata under stress of cadmium in albino rat.