Histological Evaluation of the Effects of Vernonia amygdalina (Bitter Leaf) Extract on the Pancreas of Alloxan-induced Diabetes in Adult Albino Wistar Rats

Diabetes mellitus is a chronic, complicated illness with numerous crippling side effects, most of which have multiple underlying causes. The purpose of this investigation was to examine the anti-diabetic properties of Vernonia amygdalina leaf extracts on the microstructure of the pancreas of adult Wistar rats following alloxaninduced diabetes. A total of thirty (30) albino Wistar rats were used for this experiment. The rats were divided into six groups; Group 1=normal control, Group 2= negative control, Group 3=low dose treatment group, Group 4= medium dose treatment group, Group 5= high dose treatment group and Group 6= Vitamin E (50mg/ kg, oral) as the standard drug group. The negative control group was induced with alloxan (1.5 ml/kg) body weight only while the low, medium and high dose groups were administered 0.5 ml/kg, 1.0 ml/kg and 1.5ml/kg respectively of ethanolic extract of Vernonia amygdalina for fourteen days and induced with alloxan (1.5 mg/ kg) and for seven days. At the end of the experiment, pancreas toxicity was evaluated histo-pathologically by light microscopy, data from the measurement of body weight were statistically analyzed using SPSS version 23 package. The negative control group showed acini metaplasia and focal area of acini aplasia. The other experimental group’s pancreas showed normal acini with septa. General tissue appears normal. In the body weight studies, the changes between the negative control group, the treatment groups and standard drug group were statistically significant (P<0.05). Hence, it was established that Vernonia amygdalina (bitter leaf) has pancreaticoprotective effect against alloxan-induced diabetes in pancreas.

Keywords: Vernonia amygdalina, Diabetes Mellitus, Pancreas, Alloxan-Induced Diabetes.