Protective Effect of Heat-Treated Cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) Juice Against Lead-Induced Detoxification in Rat Model

Background: In recent years, the development of efficient green chemistry approaches for detoxification of heavy metal such as lead (Pb) poisoning has become a major focus of researchers. Objectives: This study was aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of heat-treated cucumber juice on the protection of Pb-induced acute liver and kidney damages. Methods: Initially, during detoxification of lead, lead acetate (200 ppm dissolved in distilled water) was given to rats in drinking water for 5 weeks. Cucumber juice was orally administrated following three concentrations (1, 10 and 100 mg/kg) once in a day for 5 weeks. Further, the effect of heat-treated cucumber juice was evaluated on body weight, food intake, lead contents of rat tissues, and histopatholgical analysis of liver and kidney of test animals. Results: As a result, all treatments of cucumber juice exhibited a significantly higher protective effect on body weight, food intake, lead contents of tissues, count of red blood cell (RBC), and reticulocytes, as compared with Pb-control. Moreover, histology, and histomorphometry analysis of treatment tissue samples of liver and kidney also confirmed protecting effect of cucumber juice by showing normal histology and histomorphy when compared with Pb-control. Conclusion: These findings suggested that heat-treated cucumber juice has a significant protective effect on Pb-induced acute liver and kidney damages in experimental rats.