Experimental Studies on the Renal Protective Effect of Gokshura (Tribulus terrestris Linn) and Varuna (Crataeva nurvala Buch-Ham)

Kidney is one of the most vital organs in the body. It is a very sophisticated structure and very complex physiology hence suffers from a variety of specific types of diseases and is also liable to be affected in a number of other systemic conditions of external origin. Moreover, there is no satisfactory treatment for most of the diseases of the kidney, while on the other hand the hospital statistics indicated a rising incidence of kidney diseases in different parts of the world. Standard medical treatment, dialysis and transplant are very expensive propositions and out of reach of the majority hence non-dialytic/non-transplant and economical conservative management is often sought by majority of the patients. In this paper renal protective study has been carried out on aqueous extract of Gokshura (Tribulus terrestris Linn) and Varuna (Crataeva nurvala Buch-Ham) as described in Ayurvedic literature based on their action on urinary system as pre and post treatment in different doses in experimentally induced nephrotoxic animal model with Gentamicin. Parameters like Blood urea and Serum Creatinine estimation, Urine RE/ME and histopathological examination of kidney tissues have been considered for comparative study. The result has been statistically analyzed for its significance. It is observed that Aqueous Extract of Gokshura Fruit and Aqueous Extract of Varun Bark pre treated to induction of nephrotoxicity shown protection to kidney against Gentamicin induced nephrotoxicity in rats considering the above parameters. The role of these 2 drugs may be considered as renal protective effect against drug induced nephropathy.