Authors : Lida Yadekari, Mehrdad Modaresi and Mehran Majlesi
Abstract: Lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.) is one of the most important vegetables in herbal medicine. This plant is belonging to Asteraceae family and has many therapeutic properties in traditional medicine. This study was conducted to investigate the effect of hydro alcoholic extract of lettuce on blood indices, sugar, insulin, cholesterol, triglyceride, HDL and LDL in Balb/C mice. Forty mice with about 25 g weight and the age range of 3-4 months were divided randomly in five groups including control, placebo and three experimental groups. All groups were kept under similar conditions. Hydro alcoholic extract of lettuce were prepared in 50, 100 and 200 mg/kg/day doses and IP injected of treatment groups for 20 days. Normal saline was used to inject to placebo group. The most important studied parameters were number of red and white blood cells, hematocrite, MCH, MCV, MCHC, sugar, insulin, cholesterol, triglyceride, HDL and LDL. At the end of study blood samples were taken and following results were obtained: Red blood cells and hematocritee were decreased significantly in 100 and 200 mg treatments whereas white blood cells were increased significantly (p<0.05) in these treatments. Blood sugar was significantly decreased in all three treatment groups and insulin was reduced only in 200 mg group significantly. Also, cholesterol of 50 mg group reduced significantly whereas other parameters no changed. On the whole, hydro alcoholic extract of lettuce can have positive effects on white blood cells, sugar, insulin and cholesterol dose-dependently.
Lida Yadekari, Mehrdad Modaresi and Mehran Majlesi, 2013. The Effect of Hydro Alcoholic Extract of Lettuce on Blood Parameters in Mice. Research Journal of Biological Sciences, 8: 42-45.