Abstract

The study investigated the effect of Theobroma cacao on renal function of phenylhydrazine induced anaemic albino rats. Forty albino rats were divided into 8 groups of five rats each namely control (group A), Phenyl hydrazine (group B) while groups C, D and E were given phenylhydrazine and administered with 100,200 and 500 mg/kg of T. cacao respectively while groups F, G and H were given 200,500 and 1000 mg/kg of T cacao only. The sodium, potassium, chloride, urea and creatinine were determined using Flame emission spectrophotometry, Mercuric nitrate, urease Berthelot and Jaffe’s method respectively and subjected to statistical analysis using statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) version 18. There was significant difference (P<0.05) in sodium concentration (Mmol/l) of 130.602.74, 124.401.17, 130.001.40 and 131.731.26 in Control, Anaemia induced, Anaemia + T. cacao and T. cacao treated respectively while there was no significant difference (P>0.05) in Potassium (Mmol) concentrations of 4.350.96, 5.540.74, 6.140.30 and 5.380.53 in Control, Anaemia induced, Anaemia + T. cacao and T. cacao treated respectively. There was no significant difference in Chloride (Mmol/l) concentrations of 140.0023.15, 137.6014.84, 142.916.74 and 124.407.47 in control, anaemia induced, anaemia + T. cacao and T. cacao treated respectively. Urea concentrations (Mmol/l) of 2.600.81, 2.850.40, 2.580.29 and14.7711.9547 in control, anaemia induced, anaemia + T. cacao and T. cacao treated did not show any significant difference as well as creatinine concentrations (umol/l) of 189.3110.71, 155.1810.25, 172.529.10 and 164.8812.12 in control, anaemia induced, anaemia + T. cacao and T. cacao treated. The result of the study suggested that T. cacao extract caused no reversal in the renal dysfunction caused by phenylhrazine.

Key words: Renal, Theobroma cacao, anaemia, phenylhydrazine.