Mice

Echinacea (E.) purpurea herb is commonly known as the purple coneflower, red sunflower and rudbeckia. In this paper, we report the curative efficacy of an Echinacea ex-tract in γ-irradiated mice. E. purpurea was given to male mice that were divided into five groups (control, treated, irradiated, treated before irradiation & treated after irra-diation) at a dose of 30 mg/kg body weight for 2 weeks be-fore and after irradiation with 3 Gy of γ-rays. The results reflected the detrimental reduction effects of γ-rays on pe-ripheral blood hemoglobin and the levels of red blood cells, differential white blood cells, and bone marrow cells. The thiobarbituric acid-reactive substances (TBARs) lev-el, Superoxide dismutase (SOD) and glutathione perox-idase (GSPx) activities and DNA fragmentation were also investigated. FT-Raman spectroscopy was used to explore the structural changes in liver tissues. Significant changes were observed in the microenvironment of the major con-stituents, including ...