Minerals And Vitamins Content Of Vernonia Amygdalina Stem Extract And Effect Of The Extract On Some Kidney Function Parameters Of Normal And Monosodium Glutamate-Intoxicated Rats

ABSTRACT

Despite the clamour for and availability of modern medicine in many countries, phyto-medicine or herbal medicine has become popular and almost indispensable all over the world as a result of easy accessibility, low cost and ancestral experience. Ethno-botanical studies have been advocated as the most viable method of identifying new medicinal plants due to their high bioactive constituents.(Anibijuwon et al., 2012) Vernonia aniygdaiina is a shrub commonly known as bitterleaf. It is widely used as a daily green vegetable or herb to treat malaria and diabetes (Erasto et al., 2009). The potential of vernonia amygdalina was first noted when scientists observed chimpanzees ate it and were deparasitized (lzevbigue et al., 2004). Since that discovery subsequent researchers had unveiled more and more bioactivities possessed by different extracts of this plant such as antioxidant, liver protection and cytotoxic effects which are beneficial to health.