Lead intoxication and beneficial effect of administering the aqueous extract of Artemisia absinthium on lipid metabolism and hypertension in male Wistar rats

Abstract

Lead is a persistent and common environmental contaminant that can be found in food and water. It is well-known that lead acetate causes hyperten-sion, disturbance of lipid metabolism in humans and animals. Nowadays, the phytotherapy remains a very interesting field to recovery of deleterious effect of heavy metals. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of aqueous extract of Artemisia absinthium to modulating the effect of lead acetate induced changes in systolic and diastolic blood pressure levels, lipid profiles in serum, heart, aorta and liver tissues and determination of lead burden in blood, when added to intoxicated animal. Male rats (80-120) g were divided into four groups of six animals each. Intoxicated animals re-ceived intraperitoneally (i.p) injections of lead acetate (20 mg/kg/body weight) solution for 4 weeks every two days. Rats treated with plant receive orally the extract of A.absinthium (5%) for 4 weeks. Orally administration of the wormwood extract in rats intoxicated with lead acetate decreased sig-nificantly the systolic (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP) and blood lead level. Levels of total lipids, TC and TG were decreased significantly in group (Pb+PL) compared to control, especially in heart and liver tissues. In serum, a significant elevation of TC and TG was noted in intoxicated rats compared to control. The cardiac damage induced by Pb was evidenced by an increase in the levels of LDH and AST. In conclusion, the data indicate that the worm-wood extract has a significant ability to reduce hypertension, blood lead lev-el, equilibrate lipid metabolism and cardiac enzymes level.