Abstract
Doum, Hyphaene thebaica (H. thebaica), known as a famine food, is an African palm tree common in Upper Egypt. The present study was performed to evaluate the protective effect of H. thebaica (the fruits of doum) extract on liver/kidney functions in mercuric chloride (HgCl2) treated rats. Rats were randomly classified into healthy control, and 5 treated groups which were H. thebaica extract alone with either 500 or 1000 mg/kg b.w, HgCl2 alone, H. thebaica extract (low dose) plus HgCl2 and H. thebaica extract (high dose) plus HgCl2 groups. Results clearly revealed that consumption of H. thebaica alone (especially high dose) showed improvement of healthy status. The pre-treatments of H. thebaica extract with high dose which had the best modulatory results as increasing hepatic non-enzymic/enzymic antioxidant system as well as decreasing pro-inflammatory cytokines compared with healthy control group with decreasing lipid peroxidation. Our results indicate that consumption of H. thebaica extract has a beneficial role against hepatotoxicity induced by HgCl2 in male albino rats.