Purpose: To explore the protective role of Mirazid® (MRZ), a mixture extracted from
Commiphora molmol
Engler (Burseraceae), against toxicity induced by carbon tetrachloride (CCl
4).
Method: Forty male Swiss albino mice were divided into 4 groups. Group 1 was control and included
mice which were injected with normal saline; group 2 was positive control and included mice that had no
treatment for 17 days followed by intraperitoneal (i.p) injection of 200 mg/kg/day MRZ for 7 consecutive
days; groups 3 and 4 included mice which were injected intraperitoneally (i.p) with 0.8 mL/kg of 30 %
CCl
4 on days 1, 4, 7, 10, 13 and 16; animals of group 4 were then post treated with 200 mg/kg/day MRZ
for 7 consecutive days. At the end of the experiment, the mice were euthanized and subjected to a
complete necropsy. Hematological and biochemical parameters were assessed. To estimate the
histological changes, liver and kidney sections were exposed to microscopic examination.
Results: The levels of leucocytes, granulocytes, alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate
aminotransferase (AST), total bilirubin, urea, creatinine, cholesterol and triglycerides showed a
significant increase (p ˂ 0.05) while the levels of lymphocytes, platelets counts, total protein and
albumin showed a significant decrease (p ˂ 0.05) in CCl
4-injected mice when compared with the control
groups, respectively. Histological observation of the liver and kidney showed necrotic areas with cellular
infiltration and atrophied renal glomerulei with degenerated renal tubule lining, respectively. Mice that
were treated with MRZ after CCl
4 showed that the levels of lymphocytes, ALT, AST and albumin had
insignificant change (p > 0.05) compared with the control groups, respectively.
Conclusion: MRZ partially ameliorates the toxicity induced by CCl
4 in mice by improving ALT, AST and
protein profiles. Therefore, further investigations are required to figure out its antioxidant potential in
order to ascertain if it can be used as an antioxidant drug.
