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Objective: Combination therapy of lisinopril and rosuvastatin may be an important concept in developing more effective strategies to treat and prevent atherosclerosis, coronary heart disease, and co-morbid metabolic disorders. The present study was designed to evaluate toxic effects of lisinopril and rosuvastatin alone or its combination therapy on hematological and biochemical analytes in Wistar rats., Materials and Methods: Forty-two rats were divided into seven groups, with each group comprising six rats. Rats were administered with lisinopril, rosuvastatin alone, or in-combination at two different doses. The blood samples were collected from rats after 21 days of oral administration of the drug/s and analyzed for various hematological and biochemical analytes., Results: Lisinopril alone and its combination treatment with rosuvastatin at high doses decreased hemoglobin and hematocrit. Rosuvastatin alone at high dose and its concomitant administration with lisinopril at two different doses showed increase in total white blood cells and absolute lymphocyte count and neutrophil count. Serum levels of aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alkaline phosphatase (ALP), and total bilirubin were significantly increased in rosuvastatin alone and its combination with lisinopril at both the doses. Besides this, lisinopril treatment decreased serum levels of sodium and increased the levels of potassium. Serum creatine kinase (CK) levels were increased in the animals treated with rosuvastatin at both the doses. However, increased serum CK level because of rosuvastatin became normal with co-administration of lisinopril at low doses., Conclusion: Our results indicate that administration of lisinopril with rosuvastatin does not ameliorate hepatotoxicity caused by rosuvastatin. However, combination treatment reduces serum CK levels elevated due to rosuvastatin, implicating protective effect of combination treatment on myopathy at low doses.

Plants which are used by traditional healers in Tanzania have been evaluated to obtain preliminary data of their toxicity using the brine shrimps test. The results indicate that 9 out of 44 plant species whose extracts were tested exhibited high toxicity with LC(50) values below 20 microg/ml. These include Aloe lateritia Engl. (Aloaceae) [19.1 microg/ml], Cassia abbreviata Oliv. (Caesalpiniaceae) [12.7 microg/ml], Croton scheffleri Pax (Euphorbiaceae) [13.7 microg/ml], Hymenodactyon parvifolium Brig (Rubiaceae) [13.4 microg/ml], Kigelia Africana L. (Bignoniaceae) [7.2 microg/ml], and Ocimum suave Oliv. (Labiatae) [16.7 microg/ml]. Twelve plants gave LC(50) values between 21 and 50 microg/ml, 11 plants gave LC(50) values between 50 and 100 microg/ml, and 18 plants gave LC(50) values greater than 100 microg/ml.