Moringa oleifera Leaf Prevents Oxidative Stress in Wistar Rats

Background: It is believed now in some group of people that Moringa oleifera is medicinal in nature. People take it in any form to cure various clinical conditions. A number of clinical conditions have been linked to oxidative stress injury. Therefore its mechanism of action may be to control oxidative stress (oxidant-antioxidant status).

Objective: It was designed to measured plasma malondialdehyde (MDA), total antioxidant status (TAS) and red blood cell glutathione peroxidase (GPx) of Wistar rat.

Materials and Methods: Seventy healthy Wistar rats of both sexes were recruited into the study. Fourty and 30 rats were fed with diet fortified with Moringa oleifera leaf and normal diet respectively for a period of four weeks. Serum (for the measurement of MDA and TAS) and haemolysate (for the measurement of GPx) were prepared from blood sample collected after rats were sacrificed. Variables gotten were analyzed using SPSS version 17, taking level of significance to be 0.05.

Results: Serum MDA was observed to be significantly lower in rats fed with Moringa oleifera than those with normal diet (p<0.05). Mean serum TAS as well as red blood cell GPx were found to be significantly higher (p<0.01) in rats fed with Moringa oleifera than those with normal diet. There were negative and positive correlations between ‘MDA and TAS’ and ‘MDA and GPx’ respectively in both study groups.

Conclusion: Moringa oleifera leaf may prevent oxidative stress in Wistar rats.