Asian Journal of Advances in Medical Science

Cadmium is a toxic environmental heavy metal associated with oxidative stress and structural injury in metabolically active organs, including the pancreas. This study evaluated the effect of soursop (Annona muricata) leaf extract on pancreatic histology and body weight changes in cadmium-induced adult albino rats. Fifty adult albino rats weighing 100-130 g and aged five weeks were randomly allocated into five groups of ten rats each. Group A served as the control and received food and water only. Groups B, C and D received cadmium at 0.5 mg/kg with Annona muricata leaf extract at 200, 400 and 800 mg/kg, respectively, while Group E received cadmium only at 0.5 mg/kg. All administrations were performed orally for two weeks. Body weights were recorded at the beginning and end of the experiment. After sacrifice under chloroform anaesthesia, pancreatic tissues were excised, fixed in 10% formol saline, processed using standard paraffin techniques and stained with haematoxylin and eosin. Data were analysed using SPSS version 20, with significance set at p < 0.05. The control group showed marked body weight gain, whereas the cadmium-only group showed the least increase in body weight. Rats treated with medium and high doses of Annona muricata demonstrated improved body weight gain compared with the cadmium-only group. Histological findings showed normal pancreatic architecture in the control group, severe pancreatic oedema in the low-dose extract group, normal pancreatic histology in the medium-dose group, normal histological features in the high-dose group and mild pancreatic oedema with inflammatory cell infiltration in the cadmium-only group. These findings indicate that medium and high doses of Annona muricata leaf extract were associated with preservation of pancreatic histology in cadmium-induced rats.