PRELIMINARY aTOXICOLOGICAL INVESTIGATION OF ENTADA PURSAETHA SEED OIL

Abstract

High density lipoprotein (HDL), low density lipoprotein (LDL) and triglyceride (TG) are collectively referred as lipids; their levels could be modified by the type and amount of oil in human diet. In this study, Entada pursaetha seed oil (EPO) was evaluated for its toxicity status in order to determine its suitability/potential for human diet. Oil from E. pursaetha seeds used for this study was extracted with n-hexane. Fifteen wistar rats, distributed into three groups of five rats each, were fed with groundnut oil diet (positive control group), EPO diet (test group) and normal rat diet (control group) for eight weeks after which the animals were sacrificed. During the study period, clinical observation of the rats were noted, body weight of the rats was taken on a weekly basis while haematological analysis of the blood and histopathological evaluation of the heart of the rats were carried out at the end of the study. Clinical observation of the rats revealed that the rats did not show any untoward signs throughout the study period. Body weight increase of the rats was found to be steady and no mortality of any of the rats was recorded for all the groups. There was no significant difference in the haematological analysis result for the blood of the rats in the test and control groups and none of them was anaemic; this is nutritionally significant. The result of the histopathological analysis of the heart of the rats for total cholesterol and triglyceride indicated that rats fed with EPO had higher total cholesterol and triglyceride than the control group rats. EPO seemingly has potential of serving nutritional purposes but must be subjected to refining before this can probably be possible. It can however find very wide application industrially.