effect of prunus mahaleb l. seed extract on ethylene glycol- and ammonium chloride-induced urolithiasis in balb/c mice

Background: kidney stone disease can be quite painful, recurrent, and affects many people. despite advances in drug therapy, there is still a need to find effective drugs with fewer complications for long-term treatment of kidney stones and to prevent its recurrence. the present study aimed to evaluate the effect of prunus mahaleb l. seed extract on ethylene glycol- and ammonium chloride-induced urolithiasis in balb/c mice. methods: the prunus mahaleb l. seeds were collected in mashhad (iran) in june 2017. urolithiasis was induced in male balb/c mice by adding ethylene glycol (eg) 0.75% (v/v) and ammonium chloride (ac) 2% (w/v) to their drinking water for 21 consecutive days. a total of 72 animals were randomly divided into six groups of twelve animals each. group 1 received purified water as control; group 2 received eg+ac in drinking water; groups 3-5 received the extracts by gavage in dosages of 100, 300, 500 mg/kg body weight, respectively; and group 6 received 888 mg/kg sankol by gavage. note that urolithiasis was induced in groups 3-6 in the same manner as in group 2. the data were analyzed using graphpad prism software (version 5.01). results: the group receiving prunus mahaleb l. extract in a 500 mg/kg dose responded better to the treatment and less damage to the kidney tissue was observed. the serum parameters remarkably decreased in the calculi-induced animals. besides, the acute toxicity test showed that the use of the extract was safe in animals. conclusion: the results showed that the use of prunus mahaleb l. extract effectively prevented the formation of kidney stones.