Paoulomi Chatterjee

Lantana camara L. (Verbenaceae) is a perennial shrub, brought to India some 80 years ago from South America, which has become exotic and spread to different regions of the country. All the parts of this plant are traditionally used for several ailments such as antiseptic, antitumoural and antimicrobial. The current investigation was undertaken to explore the protective effect of methanol extract of Lantana camara L. (MELC) against acetaminophen and Cisplatin induced acute renal toxicity in rats. In each model of nephrotoxicities, thirty adult male Wistar rats were evenly divided into 5 groups. Groups I and II served as untreated and model controls, respectively while groups III–V were the treatment groups which were pretreated with 200, 400 mg/kg/day of MELC and group V was pretreated with Vit-E 1 hr before each dose of the nephrotoxicants (acetaminophen and Cisplatin) for 14 days (acetaminophen induced model) and 5days (Cisplatin induced model). On the 15th day (in acetaminophen) and 6th day (in Cisplatin), blood samples for serum urea, total protein and creatinine while the rat kidneys for histology were obtained under inhaled diethyl ether anesthesia. In the acetaminophen nephrotoxic rats, 200 and 400 mg/kg/day significantly (p < 0.05, p < 0.01,p < 0.001) attenuated elevations in the serum creatinine, total protein and blood urea nitrogen levels in dose related fashion, as well as, attenuation of acetaminophen induced tubulonephrosis. Similar effects were also recorded in the Cisplatin model of acute renal injury. In the near future, MELC could constitute a lead to discovery of a novel drug for the treatment of drug-induced nephrotoxicity.