IN-VITRO AND EX-VIVO STUDIES ON SYNERGISTIC EFFECTS OF LIMONIA ACIDISSIMA AND APPLE CIDER VINEGAR ON ANTI-UROLITHIATIC ACTIVITY

Kidney stones are aggregations of minerals such as calcium, oxalate, phosphates, uric acid, cysteine, etc. which can obstruct any part of the urinary system. This can turn fatal if left untreated as the major route of excretion is blocked causing the toxicity level to rise in the body which might lead to organ failure, coma and death. Limonia acidissima (wood apple) and Apple cider vinegar were found to contain phytoconstituents which are the bioactive components responsible for the anti-urolithiatic activity. Nucleation and aggregation of Calcium oxalate crystals was performed in presence of test samples were based on the percentage inhibition calculated, the mixture of samples gave the highest inhibition (37%) followed by wood apple (25%) and apple cider vinegar (9%). Calcium oxalate crystals were allowed to grow similarly where wood apple (113%) gave better inhibition when compared to apple cider vinegar (82%). The crystals obtained were microscopically monitored to correlate with obtained spectrophotometric results. Brushite crystals were grown synthetically by single gel diffusion and were exposed to the extracts. It was found that the mixture of samples synergistically inhibited the growth of crystals and also contributed towards the dissolution of the crystals. Surgically obtained kidney stones were subjected to degradation studies in the presence of the test extracts where the weight of stones was monitored periodically. The highest dissolution of the stones was observed in presence of mixture test extracts followed by wood apple and apple cider vinegar. The present study was successful in proving the synergistic effect of wood apple and apple cider vinegar towards the anti-urolithiatic activity.