Abstract
Background: Daucus carota L. belongs to the family Apiaceae and it is commonly known as carrot. The aerial part is used in some Northern parts of Nigeria as a livestock feed without scientific evidence of its safety to animal and man.Aim: The study assessed the safety margins of the D. carota aerial parts.Setting: The aerial part of D. carota were sourced from cultivated farmland at the outskirts of Samaru, Sabon Gari Local Government Area of Kaduna State and authenticated at Herbarium Unit of the Department of Botany, Ahmadu Bello University Zaria, Nigeria. The aerial parts were air-dried under shade, pulverised and stored properly for analysis.Methods: According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) method, the acute and sub-acute toxicity studies were carried on the crude extracts of the aerial parts to evaluate the safety of the healthy Wistar rats.Results: The findings from the oral acute toxicity study showed that there was no sign of toxicity and mortality at 5000 mg/kg in the n-hexane, ethyl acetate and methanol extracts. The sub-acute toxicity graded doses of 500 mg/kg, 1000 mg/kg and 1500 mg/kg of these extracts revealed a significant difference (p ≤ 0.05) on body weight, haematological parameters, liver and kidney function parameters. The histopathological effects of the extracts revealed different morphological alterations in the liver and kidney when compared with the control group.Conclusion: The study concluded that the aerial parts of D. carota might not be safe for livestock and its consumption could be capable of causing liver, kidney, tissue injury and other related diseases to animal and man.
Highlights
Vegetables have been one of the regularly recommended cheap solutions to the malnutrition or malnourishment challenge experienced worldwide (Bello et al 2019)
Body weight During the second week, there was significant (p - 0.05) weight loss in the HAEDC and MAEDC with 500, 1000 and 1500 mg/kg lost when compared with a control group and there was no significant difference (p ≥ 0.05) in the EAEDCtreated group (Table 1)
Haematological parameters The effects of the daily oral administration of the HAEDC, EAEDC and MAEDC showed a statistically significant decrease (p ≤ 0.05) on the red red blood cell (RBC) at different doses when compared with the control group
Summary
Vegetables have been one of the regularly recommended cheap solutions to the malnutrition or malnourishment challenge experienced worldwide (Bello et al 2019). Aside from the nutritional intake, they have the ability to synthesize several secondary metabolites of relatively complex structures possessing antioxidants (Yadav et al 2013) These metabolites produce specific effects on the physiology of human beings and other organisms. Recent reports indicate that there is an inverse relationship between the dietary intake of antioxidant-rich foods and the incidence of human diseases (Latifou et al 2016) Despite their advantages, several studies have established that some vegetable species are potentially toxic to humans and animals because plant chemical compounds are produced as part of the plant’s defence against being eaten by pests and herbivores or to gain an advantage over competing with other plants (Orech et al 2005; Latifou et al 2016) with the potential to be toxic to humans and livestock. The aerial part is used in some Northern parts of Nigeria as a livestock feed without scientific evidence of its safety to animal and man
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