Erythropoietic Effect of the Ethanolic Root Bark Extract of Carissa edulis in Phenylhydrazine-Induced Anemic Sprague-Dawley Rats

Carissa edulis has been used widely by traditional medical practitioners and herbalists to manage conditions of anemia in Ghana. This study therefore aims at investigating the erythropoietic effect of the ethanolic root bark extract of Carissa edulis for scientific documentation as an antianemic. Whole blood from normal Sprague-Dawley rats, phenylhydrazine-induced anemic rats and anemic rats treated with 100, 300 and 1000 mg kg-1 of C. edulis extract, 0.23 mL kg-1 Bioferon or 0.23 mL kg-1 normal saline over a 45 days period were subjected to hematological analysis using the Cell Dyne 1800 automated analyzer . Differences in the hematological profiles between the normal, anemic and anemic but treated rats were analyzed using GraphPad Prism 5. The 300 and 1000 mg kg-1 extract of C. edulis and Bioferon (the reference hematinic) caused very significant increments (p<0.01-0.001) in red blood cell count, hemoglobin concentration and hematocrit after 23 days of treatment. Changes in mean corpuscular volume, mean corpuscular hemoglobin and mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration were not significant (p>0.05). The extract of C. edulis therefore has erythropoietic activity with normocytosis and can thus be used in the management of anemic conditions. The safety for use however, needs to be ascertained in toxicity studies.