Acute and Chronic Hepatotoxicity and Nephrotoxicity Study of Orally Administered chloroform extract of Carica papaya Seeds in Adult Wistar Rats

Carica papaya is a medicinal plant which has been proven to contain substances that are being exploited for medicinal purposes. Some of its uses include anti-ulcerogenic, anti-amoebic, anti-fungal, anti-microbial, anti-tumour, employed in wound-healing activity and antifertility activity. This study was designed to evaluate the acute and chronic hepatotoxic and nephrotoxic effects of orally administered chloroform extracts of Carica papaya seed in adult Wistar rat. The OECD, 2003 guideline was used for the acute oral toxicity study to determine LD50 and this was above 2000mg/kg. For the acute and chronic studies five adult wistar rats per group weighing 160-220gm were used. They animals were grouped into two major groups (acute and chronic) of three sub groups each. Group one was the control, group two and three received 100mg and 1000mg/kg body weight of the extract respectively for five days and 60 days respectively. The haematological indices for both acute and chronic studies were normal and so also were the renal function test and liver function test. The histological studies of the liver kidneys and spleen did not reveal any pathologic changes when compared to the control group and this was in line with the organ body weight which was within normal. In Conclusion it can be said that chloroform extract of Carica papaya seed extract is not hepatotoxic and nephrotoxic to adult wistar rats in the tested doses and duration.