Alaa Hashim AlMoula, Ahmed Abdulaali Azeez, Kasim Sakran Abass

Abstract

Milk thistle (Silymarin) is a worldwide valuable medical plant which has been used for many years in the modern and alternative medicine to treat liver diseases. The current study aimed to evaluate the probable effect of legalon (standard hepatic drug) on improvement the kidney functions, lipids profile and body weight in broiler chickens. Twenty-four Ross commercial broiler of thirty days old male were randomly distributed into four treatments of six birds each. The treatment was continued for 3 weeks as follows: 1^st group (control) drinking tap water, 2^nd group given 0.5% H₂O₂, 3^rd group 0.5% H₂O₂ and 6mg/kg legalon, and 4^th group 6mg/kg legalon single oral dose once daily. The birds’ weight was measured at the end of each week. At the end of the experiment, the broilers were killed and blood parameters were taken for measuring of total cholesterol, triglycerides, HDL-C, LDL-C, VLDL-C, risk index creatinine, and urea. The results indicated that hydrogen peroxide-treatment significantly increased serum total cholesterol, triglycerides, LDL-C, VLDL-C and decreased level of HDL-C, risk index as compared with control at P< 0.05.  Concentration of 6mg legalon had significantly good impact on lipids profile and kidney functions, but did not affect significantly the body weight and better effect was obtained in the last two weeks when legalon was administrated alone‎.