Abstract
Background: Cadmium (Cd), an environmental metallic toxicant with varying degrees of toxicity, exists in different oxidational or transitional states and causes various blood disorders. Cadmium (Cd) is known to affect various organs on both acute and chronic exposures.Studieshaverevealedthatthemostimportanttissueinbodyinwhichmetabolicalterationsaremainlyreproducedisthe blood. Moringa oleifera, originally from India, has been scientiï¬cally assessed for various medicinal applications. Aims and Objective:ToexaminetheeffectofM.oleiferaaqueousextracttakenfromtheleafontotalleukocytecountincludingitsdifferentials (neutrophils and lymphocytes) in cadmium-treated rats. Materials and Methods: Twenty-four adult Wistar Albino rats, weighing between 180 and 200 g were broadly divided into four groups, six animals in each group, with group I being the control. Group IV ± was pretreated with the extract and then cadmium chloride orally for 1 day. Data were presented as mean SD and pp 0.05 considered signiï¬cant. Result: The results portrayed that pretreatment with Moringa leaf extract, 100 mg/kg/bw, earlier to the cadmium administration exhibited a signiï¬cant increase (pp 0.001) in the total leukocyte count including its differentials in comparisonwiththecadmium-exposedgroup,whereasthetotalWBCcountwassigniï¬cantlydecreasedingroupIIIincomparison with groups I and II. This study depicts a marked increase in the total leukocyte (T-WBC) count and its differentials in the animals pretreatedwithMoringaoleiferaleafextract,beforetheinfusionofcadmiumcouldbeanindicationthatM.oleiferaoffersprotection against damage to hematological parameters induced by cadmium. Conclusion: Therefore, our study suggests that aqueous leaf extract of M. oleifera enhances the immune mechanisms to ï¬ght back foreign substances when exposed to cadmium toxicity.