Background: Mangiferin is novel iron chelating agent extracted from leaves, bark, and fruit peels of Mangifera indica L. From the previous study, mangiferin showed low bioavailability. Therefore, chitosan nanoparticle as drug carrier is used to increase bioavailability of drug. The previous study found mangiferin tends to remove iron in heart and liver, although not significant in preventing iron accumulation in organ. That study also did not measure the iron concentration of kidney as well as organ that involve in iron metabolism. Aim of this study is to evaluate the effect of mangiferin and mangiferin in chitosan nanoparticle toward iron accumulation in iron overload kidney.

Methods: Thirty Sprague Dawley rats were separated into five groups: control (C), iron overload rats (IO), iron overload rats treated with oral mangiferin doses of 50 mg/kg BW (M50), and iron overload rats treated with oral mangiferin in chitosan nanoparticle doses of 50 mg/kg BW (MN50) and 25 mg/kg BW (MN25). The iron overload is given by injecting 15 mg intraperitoneal iron dextran twice a week for 4 weeks. The iron concentration in kidney was measured by atomic absorbance spectrophotometry (AAS).

Results: Iron concentration in kidney at C, IO, M50, MN50, and MN25 groups were respectively 931 ± 305.11, 2990.77 ± 590.13, 2012.31 ± 723.42, 3240.24 ± 1416.77, and 1553.86 ± 1340.01 mcg/g tissue. MN25 group shows significant reduction of iron concentration compare to IO group (p = 0.017). M50 and MN25 groups were significantly different with MN50 (p = 0.039 and p = 0.006 respectively).

Conclusion: From this experiment, oral administration of mangiferin in chitosan nanoparticle doses of 25 mg/kg BW showed a significant result in decreasing kidney iron concentration. This also proves chitosan nanoparticle with optimum dose increases bioavailability and effect of mangiferin as iron chelating agent to prevent iron accumulation in kidney.