Abstract :
Herbal medicine, also called botanical medicine or phytomedicine, refers to the use of a plantʹs seeds, leaves, roots, bark, flowers or fruits for medicinal purposes. Long practiced outside of conventional medicine, herbalism is becoming more mainstream as improvements in analysis and quality control along with advances in clinical research show their value in the treatment and prevention of disease. Recently, the World Health Organization estimated that 80% of people worldwide rely on herbal medicines for some aspect of their primary health care. The use of herbal supplements for medicinal purposes has increased dramatically over the past thirty years. Therapeutical properties of medical herbs are very useful in healing various diseases and the advantage of these medicinal herbs is being 100% natural. Nowadays people are being bombarded with thousands of toxicants, pollutants and unhealthy products, the level of sensibility in front of diseases is very high and thatʹs why the use of medicinal herbs can represent the best solution. The capability of an ethanol extract of Nigella sativa seeds to attenuate the severe influences induced by diazinon intoxication in rats has been evaluated. Sixty male rats of Sprague Dawley strain were used in the present study and they were divided into four groups. Rats of first group were untreated and served as control. Animals of second group were orally given daily a dose of diazinon at the level of 12.8 mg/kg body weight for six weeks. Rats of third group were orally supplemented with Nigella sativa seeds extract (300mg/kg/day) and after two hours received diazinon at the same dose given to second group. Animals of fourth group were supplemented with Nigella sativa seeds extract at the same dose given to third group. Hematological and serum biochemical parameters were estimated after three and six weeks. Red blood corpuscles (RBC) count, hemoglobin (Hb) concentrations, hematocrit (Hct), mean corpuscular hemoglobin (MCH), mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration (MCHC) values and percentage of neutrophil showed significant reduction, while the values of mean corpuscular volume (MCV), white blood corpuscles (WBC) count and percentages of lymphocyte and monocyte were statistically increased in rates exposed to diazinon. Administration of diazinon for three and six weeks resulted in marked increases in the values of serum creatinine, urea, uric acid, alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and creatine kinase (CK). Also, the results of this study showed that Nigella sativa seeds extract given orally for three and six weeks attenuated the extensive changes of hematological and biochemical parameters in diazinon-treated rats. Based upon these results, we suggest that Nigella sativa seeds can be considered as a promising therapeutic agent against hematotoxicity, immunotoxicity, hepatoxicity, nephrotxicity and cardiotoxicity induced by diazinon and may be against other chemical pollutants, environmental contaminants and pathogenic factors
Keywords :
Diazinon , Nigella sativa , blood , rats
