Olakunle Omotayo & Oyewale Afuye

Kidney is an important organ in the body which is involved in biotransformation of toxins. Kidney disease is a major worldwide problem mainly caused by toxicants. This study was aimed at evaluating the prot ective roles of Z. officinale on nitrosomethylurea induced kidney injury in Wister rats. Z. officinale was investigated for the presence of phytochemical in ethanolic extract, which showed the presence of terpenoid (18.0 mg/L), alkaloid (21.98 mg/L), saponin (27.64 mg/L), steroid (27.38 mg/L), and flavonoid (22.71 mg/L) while tannin, cardiac glycoside and phenolic were absent. The result from the DPPH radical scavenging activity of the ethanolic extract of Z. officinale showed that when compared to ascorbic acid, the activity of the extract increased with increasing concentration with activity at 42% at 3.125 ug/ml to 78% at 1000 ug/ml. However, the FRAP assay showed a decline with reducing ability with increasing concentration. The kidney biomarkers of urea and creatine showed the clearance of both markers increased in the treated groups when compared to the toxicant groups. The findings from this study shows that Z. officinale was able to protect the kidney from kidney injury induced by NMU. Keywords; kidney, antioxidant, nitosomethylurea 0150