FEMALE WISTAR ALBINO RATS

Banana and Plantain petals are plants commonly found in Africa, it is consumed locally and reportedly use for diverse medicinal purposes. This study was carried out to determine the effect of the extract of these banana and plantain petals on the liver function of female Wistar albino rats. A total of 42 female Wistar albino rats were used to carry out this study. The rats were acclimatized for 2 weeks before being randomly assigned into 7 groups, with 6 rats per group. Group 1 served as the control group, while groups 2 to 7 were designated as the experimental test groups. The experimental test groups were further subdivided into 2 groups: groups 2, 3 and 4were administered doses of 2.0ml, 1.0ml, and 0.5ml, of plantain petal extract respectively, whereas groups 5, 6, and 7 were administered 2.0ml, 1.0mland 0.5ml of banana petal extract respectively. The extracts were administered daily for duration of 28 days. At the end of the experimental period, the rats were anesthetized with chloroform, blood sample was collected from the abdominal aorta and the heart and the rats were then sacrificed. The resultsrevealed a non-significant change (p>0.05) in alanine aminotransferase (ALT), alkaline phosphatase (ALP), aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and total protein activities in experimental groups relative to the control group. This result also showed a mild increase in bilirubin levels in some of the groups administered with banana petal extract, albumin levels of the experimental groups administered with
the banana petals extracts showed a significant increase (p<0.05) relative to the control. In conclusion, aqueous banana and plantain petals extract has no negative impact on the liver