Acute and chronic metabolic study of nigella stavia linn

ABSTRACT

In the acute metabolic studies using mice as experimental animals KSJ showed an increase in food intake but almost no change to slight decrease in defaecation. Interestingly though there was no change in water intake but there was a large increase in the amount of urinations. Though the month-long body weight gain study was not uniform in choosing initial weight of the experimental animals but it can be safety concluded that KSJ causes a decrease in body weight gain in rats of both the sexes. Male rats showed more variation in their gaining of body weight. In the organ-weight studies, there was an increase in weight of liver only in the female rats. The weight of kidney increased irrespective of the sex of the rat. Adrenal weight increased only in the male rats. Among the male gonads there was an increase in weight in cauda epididymides and seminal vesicles. Gross histopathological changes were noticed in the kidney and testes. Possible histopthological changes were noticed in the liver and small intestine. Abnormal changes were noted in the pancreas, stomach, glomeruli, urinary bladder, testes, adrenal cortex, adrenal medulla and lachrymal gland