INVIVO ANTIOXIDANT POTENTIALS OF VERNONIA AMYGDALINA AND GONGRONEMA LATIFOLIUM LEAF EXTRACTS ON DIABETIC INDUCED RATS

Vernonia amygdalina (VA) and Gongronema latifolium (GL) are known to have antioxidant activities. The extent to which heat treatment will affect the antioxidant activities of these green vegetable leaves is not well known this work is aimed at comparing the activities 300mg/Kg bodyweight of raw and boiled extracts of VA and GL on the Superoxide dismutase (SOD) and Glutathione peroxidase (GSH) enzymes of rat liver. The control groups were given 5ml of saline for the 14days. The result showed that normal treated rats (NTR) had no significant difference (p<0.05) from normal treated control group. The alloxan diabetic induced rats showed a significant difference (p<0.05) in SOD activity between normal, the diabetic treated and control group. Glutathione had no significant difference (p<0.05) between the treated and control groups. The raw and boiled extracts showed no significant activities of Glutathione between them except is in the NTR where boiled GL had significant lower SOD activity. The result encourage short time heat treatment to reduce the anti-nutrient compounds and yet not affect the antioxidant activity of the leaves.