Razi Journal of Medical Sciences

    Background & Aim: Garlic is a medicinal plant that has been considered and used as "medicine" in various cultures since along time. Considering injuries of lead toxicity especially in vital tissues like liver, kidney and brain and since most drugs used in the treatment of lead toxicity have many side effects it seems necessary to accomplish new studies to identify low risk drugs for prophylaxis and treatment of this important poisoning. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of fresh garlic and garlic tablet on prevention of lead(Pb) accumulation in some vital tissues. Materials and Methods: Thirty male crossbred-dogs(wt:-9-12 kg, 6-9 months old) were divided into six equal groups(4 experimental groups, 1 control positive and 1 control negative). Experimental groups(A, B) and control positive group(C) received 5 mg/kg lead acetate daily up to one month and A1, A2, B1 and B2 groups received 1/8 and 1/4 of garlic tab, 250 and 500 mg of fresh garlic per kg of body weight respectively. Group D was negative control and received no substance. Results were analyzed using the Dunnet test of Kruskal-Wallis One way analysis of variance on Ranks. Results: Decreased serum lead burden in groups B1 and B2 in comparison with group C was significant(P<0.05) while in groups A1 and A2 it wasn't significant(P>0.05). In case of kidney tissue, decrease of lead contents(except for group A1), was significant in all groups(P<0.05). In case of liver and bone tissues decrease of lead contents of all groups in comparison with group C, was significant(P<0.05). Conclusion: The results of the present study revealed that administration of at least 250mg/kg.bodywt./day of fresh garlic can decrease lead contents of serum, kidney, liver and bone tissues, but the same dose of garlic tablet is not effective on lead burden of serum and kidney. However, 500mg/kg.bodywt/day of garlic tablet is also effective on decreasing the lead burden of kidney tissue.