Abstract
The present work aimed to study the effects of daily use of Kola nut on liver tissue. The experiment was carried out on 40 male Wister albino rats, which were divided into 4 groups. The first group (G1) served as a control group. Groups G2 and G3 were treated with 10 mg/Kg body weight of aqueous Kola nut extract for 15 and 60 days, respectively. The rats in Group G4 were treated with 10 mg/Kg body weight of aqueous extract of Kola nut for 60 days, then they were left for normal recovery without treatment for 30 days. The rats were sacrificed and their liver tissues from different groups were processed and examined after 15 and 60 days and the withdrawal group after 30 days of stopping the treatment. The histological results showed that the treatment for 15 days caused acute congestion of the liver tissues, dilated central veins with erythrocytes stasis, edematous, inflammatory cell infiltration, and lack in Kupffer cell number. The liver of rats treated for 60 days represented fatty infiltration, vacuolar cytoplasmic degenerations, cellular necrosis, nuclear karyolysis, and bile duct proliferation. While the liver treated for 60 days then left for normal healing for 30 days showed continuous histopathological damage as well as severe disorganization of normal liver tissue structure with a significant decrease (P <0.05) in relative liver weight. The results of the current study indicated that aqueous extract of Kola nut induced hepatotoxicity via oxidative stress.