ABSTRACT
Background: The increasing incidence of high blood pressure, its complications and associated fatalities has led to an upsurge in the use of alternate forms of medicaments in its management. The oral ingestion of the hemolymph of Archachatina marginata is commonly used as an antihypertensive by the Yoruba people of South West Nigeria. This study investigated the effect of oral administration of Archachatina hemolymph on normotensive and adrenaline induced hypertensive wistar rats. Methods: The hemolymph of Archachatina marginata was orally administered at doses of 22.8 and 45.6 mg/kg body weight to normotensive and adrenaline induced hypertensive rats for 7 days. Blood pressure parameters were measured via a polygraph. Histopathological assessment of the heart tissue was conducted. Data gathering and analysis were done in 2014 (February – August). Results: In this study, the orally administered hemolymph had no significant (p˂0.05) lowering effect on the systolic/ diastolic pressure, pulse pressure, mean arterial pressure or heart rate of either the normotensive or adrenaline induced hypertensive rats. Histopathological assessment of the cross section of the heart tissues shows the hemolymph had no adverse effect on the examined cross section of the heart tissue. Conclusion: Based on the data from this study, there is no justifiable reason for the use of the hemolymph of Archachatina marginata as a antihypertensive.