Rosemary vs. Kidney Failure

I confess, when I first opened this article, I thought there was NO way this herb would be effective here and they killed these poor rats for nothing.  I am now humbled after fully reading this article.  Such a detailed study!

Ashtiyani, Zohrabi, Hassanpoor, Hosseini, and Hajihashemi (2013) tested a water-extract of rosemary in a study using 40 rats, 10 per group to investigate the effectiveness of rosemary in treating kidney failure.  The authors said the most common cause of kidney failure is renal ischemia which can be caused by vasoconstriction. Decline in kidney function results in the buildup of nitrogen waste and the increase of blood urea and creatinine.

Two of the groups were given rosemary for 1 week, one of these groups underwent renal failure by an induced ischema-reperfusion. One group was given reperfusion with saline over the same period. 

The water extract was created by coarsely grinding fresh herb and putting 8 grams of herb in 100 milliliters of water.  It was boiled for 5 minutes and infused for 10.  The rats were given 10 milliliters per kilogram of weight per day through a feeding tube.

In the rosemary group, there was a 86% decrease in creatinine clearance, 34% decrease in urine osmolarity, 39% decrease in erythrocytes inside the glomeruli, and 35% decrease in absolute urinary excretion of potassium. There were increases in levels of plasma creatinine, BUN, absolute levels of sodium urinary excretion, fractional sodium urinary excretion, and fractional potassium urinary excretion.  This is in comparison to the sham group that was given rosemary but not the reperfusion. 

Compared to the other group that was given the reperfusion, the rosemary group had a 71% decrease in plasma creatinine, decrease in BUN by 48%, decrease in absolute urinary sodium excretion by 74%, decrease in fractional sodium excretion by 94%, decrease in fractional potassium excretion by 56% and a significant decrease in malondialdehyde.  There were significant increases in erythrocytes in glomeruli, absolute urinary potassium excretion, creatinine clearance and ferric-reducing antioxidant capability. 

In the degradation of the kidneys comparison, the rosemary group did incredibly well.  The authors used a grading system with zero being not present and 5 being 80-100% present.  The reperfusion group got a 3 in increase in Bowman space, a 4 in vascular congestion, cell exfoliation got a 4, and a 4 in proteinaceous casts.  In the rosemary group, Bowman space got a 1, vascular congestion scored a 2, cell exfoliation got a 2, and proteinaceous casts got a 1.

The results indicate the rosemary group had better blood flow than the reperfusion group.  This demonstrates the anti-inflammatory and antispasmodic abilities of the herb. The rosemary group also had significant decrease in cellular damage and functionality.
 
Have a Great Day!

Ashtiyani, S. C., Zohrabi, M., Hassanpoor, A., Hosseini, N., and Hajihashemi, S. (2013). Oral Administration of the Aqueous Extract of Rosmarinus Officinalis in Rats Before Renal Reperfusion Injury. Iranian Journal of Kidney Diseases, 7(5).