1. Introduction
Plumbago zeylanica L. belonging to the family Plumbaginaceae is an important plant of medicinal value. In the Arabian Peninsula, it is mainly distributed over Oman, Yemen and the Southwestern region of Saudi Arabia. The use of the roots of P. zeylanica for treating skin problems has been recorded by early Muslim physicians. P. zeylanica is greatly valued in Ayurveda for treatment of cough, asthma and gastrointestinal disorders. In Sushrutha Samhitha it has been described as antiseptic, febrifuge, detoxicant, antihelminthic and considered valuable for curing migraine, jaundice, urinary calculi, internal abscesses, seminal weakness, vaginal discharges and insanity. The leaves and roots are used as an appetite depressant and also for treating leprosy and skin disorders (Shahina AG, 1994). The hepatoprotective, anti-inflammatory,…show more content… To study oxidative stress, antioxidant parameters such as catalase activity, glutathione peroxidase activity and lipid peroxidation were analyzed. The blood was collected from the retro-orbital on 10th day from animals and they were anesthetized using sodium phenobarbitone (60mg/kg). The serum was separated by centrifugation at 10000 rpm for 10 min and analyzed for biochemical parameters such as serum urea, uric acid and electrolytes.Serum urea was measured using the commercially available kit (Liquicheck AGAPPE Diagnostics LTD), following the GLDH-Urease method (Tietz, 1976). The amount of creatinine in serum was estimated using Liquicheck AGAPPE Diagnostics commercial kit according to Picrate method (Cook, 1975). Serum uric acid level was determined using commercially available Biosystems Uric acid kit by Uricase method (Fossati et al., 1980). Estimation of serum sodium and potassium was done by flame photometric method (Chuang et al.,