ASSESSMENT OF ANTI-HYPERGLYCEMIC, HAEMOPROTECTIVE AND HEPATOPROTECTIVE PROPERTIES OF C. chayamansa AQUEOUS LEAF EXTRACT IN DIABETIC RATS

chayamansa is one of the plants which is commonly used as a source of nutrients and for medicinal benefits especially among rural kuchigoro community in Nigeria, where pregnant women and diabetic patients use the aqueous leaf extract of the plant to boost their haematological parameters and to lower blood glucose. The benefits they claim to have from this leaf extract may come along with some levels of injury to the liver. Therefore, a rat model was used to verify this claim and to assess the possible hepatotoxicity that could come along with the ingestion of the plant extract. Diabetics was induced in rats and then treated with a low and a high dose of the aqueous leaf extract and also with a standard drug. Results show that the diabetic rats treated with the aqueous leaf extract with the low, and high dose of the leaf extract and the standard drug decreased blood glucose at day 7 and a further decrease at day 14, which was significantly (p<0.05) different from the test control; improved PCV and increased the concentrations of Hb, RBC, Platelets, and Neutrophils and decreased Lymphocytes and WBC; decreased the concentration of markers of liver injury; and the histopathology of the liver showed healing process of the hepatocytes. This means that C. chayamansa aqueous leaf extract has anti-hyperglycemic, haemoprotective and hepatoprotective properties.