• Advances in Traditional Medicine
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.22-27
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• 2004

Cisplatin is a highly effective and extensively used anticancer drug. Higher doses of cisplatin manifest acute nephrotoxicity and this is one of the limiting factors of this drug in cancer chemotherapy. The effect of the oyster mushroom extract to ameliorate cisplatin ( cis platinum (II) diammine dichloride) induced nephrotoxicity and restoration of antioxidant defence system in mice was investigated. The investigations showed that prior administration of methanolic extract of Pleurotus florida at a dose of 500 and 1000mg/Kg body weight significantly reduced elevated serum creatinine and urea levels and increased superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT) and glutathione peroxidase (GPx) activities in the kidney, consequent to cisplatin treatment, in a dose dependent manner. The extract restored the decreased reduced glutathione (GSH) activity and increased malondialdehyde (MDA) level due to cisplatin administration. The results thus indicated that oyster mushroom extract rendered significant protection against cisplatin induced nephrotoxicity and depletion of antioxidant defence system in a dose dependent manner. Since oyster mushrooms are excellently edible and non-toxic, the finding reported here is of significant use in cancer chemotherapy.