Objective Increased exposure to cadmium is becoming a major concern in Nigeria and the world in general. Exposure can be through ingestion of contaminated food and water. This observation as led to a continuous search for drugs and compounds that can prevent the toxic effect of cadmium. This study investigated the hepatoprotective effect of Ipomoea cairica against cadmium induced liver injury.

Methods Male wistar rats were orally pretreated with 100- and 250 mg/kg of I. cairica leaf extract (ICE) before administration of 3.5 mg/kg of cadmium chloride intraperitoneally. Animals were sacrificed 24 h later and evaluated for hematological parameters, markers of hepatotoxicity, oxidative stress, and antioxidant status.

Results CdCl₂ caused a significant decrease in parked cell volume (PCV), hemoglobin (Hb), increased in white blood cells (WBC), leucocyte (leu), basophil (baso), and eosinophil (eos). In addition, CdCl₂ caused a marked increase in malondialdehyde (MDA), decrease in glutathione (GSH) concentration, catalase (CAT), superoxide dismutase (SOD), and glutathione-S- transferase (GST) activities. Treatment with ICE was able to prevent the toxic effect of CdCl₂ as observed in the increased PCV and Hb, decreased concentration of WBC, leu, baso, and eos, decreased concentration of MDA, increased concentration of GSH, increased activities of CAT, SOD and GST.

Conclusions The observed hepatoprotective effect of I. cairica confirms the ethnobotanical usage of the plant in the management of liver related disorders. Further investigation can be conducted on the mechanism involved in the hepatoprotective activities of I. cairica.