Ameliorative Potential Of Curcumin In Rats Exposed To Metallic Mixture For 28 Days

The present study was undertaken to evaluate the heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury, iron and copper) mixture at 10x and 100x dose toxicity of environmentally realistic concentration in water bodies of Mathura district and its possible amelioration with curcumin @ 100 mg/kg body weight in male Wistar rats. Forty two rats were divided into seven groups- control, vehicle control, 10x, 100x, curcumin, 10x plus curcumin and 100x plus curcumin. The toxicity and its amelioration were considered on the basis of feed and water intake, body weight gain, absolute and relative organ weight and haemato-biochemical profiles. Heavy metals mixture resulted in a significant and progressive decrease in the feed and water intake resulting in dose dependent reduction in body weight gain at the two dose levels indicative of systemic toxicity which was substantially improved by co-administration of curcumin. The immunotoxic behavior of the mixture is indicated by a relative decline in the thymus weight. Dose–dependent increase in platelet count, mean corpuscular haemoglobin and haemotocrit and decrease in PCV and TLC was also observed when compared to control and vehicle control groups.However, ALT and AST were altered non-significantly.