Background: Paracetamol overdose/abuse as a result of self-medication is a common occurrence amongst people living in low/middle income countries. The present study was designed to investigate the hypolipidemic and cardioprotective potentials of Vernonia calvoana (VC) ethanol extract in acetaminophen (paracetamol)-treated rats. Methods: Thirty-five Wistar rats weighing 100-150 g were randomly assigned into five groups of seven rats each. Groups 2-5 received high doses of paracetamol to induce liver damage, while group 1 was used as normal control. Afterwards, they were allowed to receive varying doses of VC (group 3 and 4) or vitamin E (group 5), whilst groups 1 and 2 were left untreated. The treatment period lasted for twenty one days after which sera were harvested and assayed for serum lipid indices using standard methods. Results: Groups 3 to 5 treated animals indicated significant decrease (p < 0.001) in low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-c), total cholesterol (TC) and triacylglycerol (TG) levels relative to the normal and acetaminophen-treated controls, the atherogenic index showed a significant decrease (p < 0.001) in all treated groups compared with normal and acetaminophen-treated controls. However, the VC- and vitamin E-treated groups showed significant (p < 0.001) increase in high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) relative to the controls. Conclusions: Data from our study suggest that ethanol leaf extract of VC possesses probable hypolipidemic and cardioprotective effects.
Keywords: Acetaminophen; Vernonia calvoana; hypolipidemic activity and antioxidants; serum lipid indices.