Ethanolic Clove Extract of Allium Sativum (Garlic) Caused Increased Fragility of Erythrocytes in E Coli Induced Sepsis of Wistar Rat

Background: Sepsis is a major concern in intensive care Unit and its epidemiology is increasing over the years. One of the causes of sepsis include the gram negative Escherichia coli. Over the years, spices have shown to combat microbial infection., though the studies have shown that they also present certain adverse effect in the body systems. Allium sativum is one of such spices that has been of interest of study. Objective of Study: The objective of this work is to determine the effect of ethanol extract of allium sativum on hematological parameters and osmotic fragility of red blood cells of Wistar rats during E. coli induced sepsis. Methodology: Thirty (30) rats were used in this study. The rats were grouped into 5 groups (n=6) and were all allowed free access to food and water. Except for groups 1, the normal control group, all groups were induced with sepsis by intraperitoneal injection of E coli isolates. Successful induction was confirmed after 5 day as local signs of inflammation and sepsis such as fever and weight loss, indicative of sepsis, manifested. All groups, except group 1 and group 2, the negative control group, were treated for 14 days. Group 3, the positive control group, was treated with 400mg/kg/day of hydrochloride ciprofloxacin. Groups 4 and 5, the low and high dose groups, were treated with 200mg of extract/kg/day and 400mg of extract/kg/day respectively. After 14 days, the animals were euthanized by anaethesia using chloroform. Blood was collected by cardiac puncture and EDTA bottles. The hematological parameters were measured using automated hematological analyzer. RBC osmotic fragility test, using varying dilutions of NaCl solution and spectrophotometer was carried out. Statistical analysis of the data was done and the differences between the means of control and experiment groups were determined using ANOVA. Values of P