Hematological Profile of Taraxacum Officinale

The effect of aqueous extract Of Taraxacum officinale on hematological profile of streptozotocin induced diabetic and normoglycemic rats was investigated.Forty (40) male rats were obtained, acclimatized for one week and divided into two major groups of twenty. One group of twenty was used for normoglycemic studies and the other group for the hyperglycemic studies. Diabetes mellitus was induced using streptozotocin (60mg/kg) and citrate buffer (pH 4.5).At the end of the three weeks, the rats were sacrificed and their pancreas, kidneys and livers were weighed to determine the organ to body weight ratios. Phyto-chemical analysis revealed the presence of tannins, flavonoids, alkaloids, terpenoids, glycosides, and saponins. The low dose extract (10mg/kg) showed to improve most of the indices of anemia over the weeks of study.