Protective Effect of Hawthorn (Crataegus Linn) against Radiation-Induced Damage in Rats

Crataegus Linn., commonly known as Hawthorn, is one of the most widely used herbal heart tonic. The objective of this work is to investigate the radioprotective and antioxidant effect of hawthorn (H) extract against gamma irradiation induced biochemical disorders in rats .Twenty four animals were randomly divided into equal four groups as follows:- Group 1: control group rats Group 2: irradiated rats whole body exposed to 7Gy gamma-rays, Group 3: treated , rats in this group received freshly prepared Hawthorn(H) at dose (10mg/kg body wt/ day) by gavages for 28 consecutive days .Group4: rats received freshly Hawthorn for 7 consecutive days then exposed to 7Gy whole-body gamma irradiation and treated with Hawthorn for 21 consecutive days after irradiation . Exposure to gamma- irradiation induced a significant increase of aminotransferases (AST, ALT), and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activities and total cholesterol (TC), triglycerides (TG) and Low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) cotents. While, High density lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-C) cotent showed a decrease. Metabolic disorders were associated to significant increases in serum and liver thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) and protein carbonyl content (PCC) and marked reduction in glutathione (GSH) content and Catalase (CAT) and Superoxide dismutase (SOD) activities in blood and liver compared with controls. Administration of Hawthorn prior and after radiation exposure was found to offer protection against gamma irradiation induced oxidative stress in rats. Accordingly, it could be concluded that consumption of Hawthorn could modulate the oxidative stress caused by radiation exposure and that due to its antioxidant activity