Clinical and pathological features of Nerium oleander extract toxicosis in wistar rats

BACKGROUND: Nerium oleander has been widely studied for medicinal purposes for variety of maladies. N. oleander has also been reported having noxious effects because of its number of components that may show signs of toxicity by inhibiting plasma lemma Na(+), K(+)-ATPase. The present study was performed to scrutinize the toxic effect of N. oleander leaves extract and its clinical and pathological features in wistar rats. RESULTS: Hematological analysis showed significant variations in RBCs count (P = 0.01), Hb (P = 0.001), Hct (P = 0.0003), MCV (P = 0.013), lymphocyte count (P = 0.015), neutrophil count (P = 0.003), monocyte count (P = 0.012) and eosinophil count (P = 0.006). Histopathological studies have shown that in T(1) group noticeable infiltration of inflammatory cells was found with low level of vascular damage. In T(2) group, increased proportion of binucleated and inflammatory cells, hepatic necrosis, widening of sinusoidal spaces and mild level of vascular damage was observed. CONCLUSION: Taken together these findings we can conclude that N. oleander leaves extract significantly affects on experimental animals due to its toxicity. Efforts must be exerted to purify different chemical components from extract with no inflammation as this plant is utilized in folk medicine with narrow therapeutic indices.