Abstract:
The present work was undertaken to validate the combinatorial effect of the ethanol extractions
of rhizomes of Cyperus rotundus Linn. (“Kalanduru”) and Alpinia calcarata Rosc. (“Heen Araththa”), and root
barks of Solanum surattense Burm.f. (“Elabatu”), Clerodendrum infortunatum Linn. (“Pinna”), and Croton
laccifer Linn. (“Keppetiya”) as immunomodulators in rats. Materials and Methods: Wistar rats were orally
fed with combined crude products of the five plant species (200 mg/ml) at each day for a period of 14 days
while control group was orally fed with 1 ml of distilled water each day for the same period. Differential white
blood cell (WBC) count, leukocyte adhesion, interleukin (IL-4), IL-10, and IL-12 levels were measured in all
rats after the treatments. Subsequently, animals in each group were orally fed with 1 ml of cyclophosphamide
solution at a concentration 20 mg/ml. Results: Hematological analyses revealed that total WBC and leukocyte
adhesion were not significantly different in control and extract-treated groups. Expression of IL-4 and IL-10 was
significantly different in treated and control groups while expression of IL-12 was not significantly different.
Cyclophosphamide-induced immunosuppression of the control group caused moderate to severe skin lesions
while the rats in the extract-treated group did not sustain any skin lesions. All the rats in the cyclophosphamidetreated
control group died after three months while 83.33% of the cyclophosphamide + plant extract received
group survived, indicating the ability of the plant combination to alleviate the immunosuppression induced by
cyclophosphamide. Conclusions: Treating with ethanolic extract combination of above plant species might
exert their immunomodulatory effect via cytokine expression and can attenuate the immunosuppression
induced by cyclophosphamide.
