ABSTRACT
Cadmium is a relatively rare soft metal that occurs in the natural environment typically in association with zinc ores and to a lesser extent, with lead and copper ores. It is highly toxic to both human and animals because it is widely distributed in the environment and is used in various industries. Some of the toxic effects of cadmium exposure are testicular atrophy, renal dysfunction, hepatic damage, hypertension, central nervous system injury and anemia. Parkia biglobosa serves as a remedy for quite number of ailments and has medicinal properties against bronchitis, pneumonia, diarrhea, violent colic, vomiting sores and ulcers. This research work was targeted at investigating the activities of cadmium and Parkia biglobosa leaf extract on the histoarchitecture and histochemistry in prefrontal cortex. Thirty Wistar rats were used for the study. The animals were acclimatized for two weeks and were maintained under standard condition in Bingham University animal house holding they were housed in well ventilated cages and kept under controlled light schedule and were fed with standard laboratory feed and water ad libitum. The rats were randomly grouped into six groups A, B, C, D, E, F each containing five animals. Group A served as control, Groups B, C, D, E and F were injected intra-peritoneally with 3.0 mg/kg of cadmium sulphate. After 72hrs of injecting cadmium, group C, D and E were administered orally with 20 mg/kg, 30 mg/kg and 40 mg/kg of the leaves extract of Parkia biglobosa respectively and group F received oral administration of 100 mg/kg and 30 mg/kg of vitamin C and E respectively for two weeks. Animals were sacrificed after two weeks of the last administration of the Parkia biglobosa leaf extract by cervical dislocation. Cadmium administration caused a significant increase (P< 0.05) of LDH, G6PD and MDA level in cadmium group animal while there was a significant decrease in LDH, G6PD and MDA level upon administration of Parkia biglobosa leaf extract. This study has shown that Parkia biglobosa leaf extract has antioxidant properties that might have enhanced morphological damage caused by cadmium by regenerating pyramidal and neuroglial cells and improving distribution of Nissl bodies in the prefrontal cortex of the treated rats.