Subcronic Toxicity Effect of Ethanol Extract of Bitter Melon Fruit (Momordica charantia L.) on Kidney Function and Histopathological Changes in Wistar Rat

Bitter melon is a fruit that was famous for its bitter taste and contains chemical compounds that are proven to have effects such as antidiabetic, anti-inflammatory, antipyretic, and antioxidant. One of the prerequisites of a plant to be developed into a drug that is by testing the subchronic toxicity. This study goal to determine the presence of toxic effects that are not detected in the acute toxicity test. A total of 40 wistar rats were divided into group control and 3 treatment groups. Each group consisted of 5 male rats and female rats. Group 1 (control) is only given food (pellets) and drinking water. Group 2, 3 and 4 groups were given ethanol extract of bitter melon pulp (Momordica charantia L.) with multilevels doses 250 mg/kgbw, 500 mg/kgbw, and 1000 mg/kgbw. The observations made for 28 days included the number of death animals, relative organ weight (ROW), ureum, creatinine levels and histopatological changes in kidney. There were no deaths in the entire group, decreasing ureum (p=0,022), creatinine levels (p=0,033) in male group. While in female group ureum decrease not significantly (0.878) and creatinine (0.845). There were no significant changes in ROW (p=0,370 and p=0,394), but there were changes in microscopic structure. In conclusion ethanol extract of bitter melon fruit (Momordica charantia L.) at a  of 250 mg/kgbw, 500 mg/kgbw, and 1000 mg/kgbw does not showed any toxic effects on kidney function and relative organ weight. But microscopically, the administration of ethanol extract of bitter melon fruit caused a toxic effect on the kidney tubules in both male and female groups. Keywords: Momordica charantia L., sub chronic toxicity, ureum, creatinine, histopathological chang