Effect of Long Term Feeding of the Water Extract of Dried Flowers of Aegle marmelos in Wistar Rats

Aegle marmelos (Bael Fruit) is a highly reputable medicinal plant which possesses many medicinal properties in traditional systems of medicine of Asian countries [1]. The water extract of dried flowers of Aegle marmelos is a popular herbal drink with hypoglycaemic [2,3,4,5] anti-inflammatory [6] and anti-oxidant [7] activities. The objective of the present study was to evaluate safety of the water extract of dried flowers of Aegle marmelos. To prepare the water extract, 25g of dried flowers were boiled in 500ml water until reduced to 50ml. Male Wistar rats were divided into 2 groups (n=6); Test and Control. The Test and Control groups received a single dose (500mg/kg) of the water extract and distilled water respectively for 42 consecutive days. After 42 days, levels of blood AST, ALT, ALP, Hb, Creatinine and Gamma GT were measured using reagent kits. There was no statistically significant (P>0.05) difference between the values of above parameters of Test group compared to the Control group. The results of the present study showed that the water extract of dried flowers of Aegle marmelos does not exert any adverse effects as judged by the parameters studied.

Blood parameters following feeding of the water extract of dried flowers of Aegle marmelos for 42 days in Wistar rats.

Parameter	Test	Control
AST	85±1µI/L	87±3µI/L
ALT	33±1µI/L	32±1µI/L
ALP	134±2µI/L	131±1µI/L
Creatinine	84±3µmol/L	83±2µmol/L
Gamma GT	2.4±0.3µI/L	2.3±0.3µI/L
Hemoglobin	14±1g/L	15±1g/L

Acknowledgments: This work was supported by a grant from the University of Sri Jayewardenepura (ASP/06/R/2009/10). References: [1] Sharma, GN, Dubey SK, et al. (2011). Intl J Cur Pharm Review and Research. 2: 12–22. [2] Kumari KDKP, Suresh TS (2010) Oral hypoglycemic activity of dried flower extract of Aegle marmelos (bael fruit) in normal and diabetes induced Wistar rats. Proceedings of the Annual Scientific Sessions of the Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Sri Lanka. [3] Kumari KDKP, Suresh TS (2011) Hypoglycaemic effect of water extract of dried flowers of Aegle marmelos on healthy Wistar rats: time and dose response curves. Proceedings of the Annual Research symposium of Sir John Kotelawala Defense University, Sri Lanka. [4] Kumari KDKP, Suresh TS (2011) Hypoglycaemic effect of the single and multiple doses of the water extract of dried flowers of Aegle marmelos (Bael fruit) in healthy Wistar rats. Proceedings of the Annual Research symposium of University Kelaniya, Sri Lanka. [5] Kumari KDKP, Suresh TS (2011). A study on the hypoglycaemic effect of the aqueous extract of dried flowers of Aegle marmelos in diabetic Wistar rats. Proceedings of the Annual Scientific Sessions of the Sri Lanka Association for the Advancement of Science, Sri Lanka. [6] Kumari KDKP, Suresh TS (2011) Anti-inflammatory activity of dried flower extracts of Aegle marmelos in Wistar rats. Proceedings of the Annual Scientific Sessions of Institute of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka. [7] Sujeewani TC, Suresh TS, (2009) Selected nutrients and anti inflammatory activity of Aegle marmelos Proceedings of the Annual Scientific Sessions of the Sri Lanka Association for the Advancement of Science, Sri Lanka.