ABSTRACT
Herbal plants have various biological and pharmacological activities and are used as chemotherapeutic agents. Aegle marmelos (Lin.) has antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and antigenotoxic properties due to its active phytoconstituents like marmenol, marmin, marmelosin, aegelin, marmelin etc. The present study investigates the protective potential of leaf extract of A. marmelos against cadmium-induced oxidative stress and histopathological manifestations involved in the neuronal tissue of BALB/c mice. Mice were given prophylactic and therapeutic treatments (pre and post) of two different doses (250 and 500 mg/kg body weight) of A. marmelos to evaluate its protective efficacy against CdSO4 (5 mg/kg body weight, i.p. for 5 days) induced neurotoxicity by estimating various biochemical and histopathological parameters. Sub-lethal cadmium exposure caused a significant elevation in levels of lipid peroxidation, a noticeable decrease in enzymatic antioxidants (Catalase, Superoxide dismutase, Glutathione reductase, Glutathione –S-transferase) and non-enzymatic (reduced glutathione) antioxidants and marked structural alterations in neural tissue. A. marmelos pretreatment significantly (P≤ 0.01) reversed increased lipid peroxidation and attenuated the decreased enzymatic (P≤ 0.05) and non-enzymatic antioxidant markers (P≤ 0.05). Furthermore, pretreatment of A. marmelos also protected the histoarchitecture of neuronal tissue. Out of all the treatments, pretreatment was found to be more effective as compared to post-treatment, evidently seen in all biochemical assay (P≤ 0.05, two-way ANOVA). Taken together, these results indicate that Aegle marmelos could be used as a potential prophylactic agent for combating adverse effects of cadmium in neural tissue.