Protective Effect of Aqueous Leaf and Seed Extracts of Carica papaya against Lead Bioaccumulation in Albino Wistar Rats

Lead is an environmental pollutant. Humans are frequently exposed to lead through drinking water, air, food, or occasionally through the skin. On exposure, lead bio-accumulates in human organs and tissues and subsequently leads to disorders of the nervous, cardiovascular, respiratory and renal systems. There is therefore need to explore the potentials of natural products in neutralizing these toxic effects. This study evaluated the protective effect of Carica papaya leaves (CPL) and Carica papaya seed (CPS) against lead bioaccumulation in albino rats. Thirty male albino rats of the Wistar strain weighing 174-196g were assigned to six groups of five animals receiving various treatments: group 1- control; 2 50mg/kg body weight (BW) lead nitrate (PbNO ); 3- 500 mg/kg BW CPL 3 extract; 4- 500 mg/kg BW CPS extract; 5- 50mg/kg BW PbNO + 3 500mg/kg BW CPL; and 6- 50mg/kg BW PbNO + 500mg/kg CPS orally 3 for 31 days. The study revealed a significant reduction (P 0.05) in the group complemented with CPS than CPL. This finding suggests that CPL and CPS have the potential of reducing lead bioaccumulation and its detoxication potential can be explored by pharmaceutical industries for this potential