Toxic Assessment of Calcium Carbide Ripened Pawpaw on the Haematological Parameters of the Wistar Rats

Abstract

Fruits are sweet fleshy products of a plants, that contain various nutrients and when consumed help the human in diverse ways. Some build up muscles, some burst immune system, some are anti-oxidant and amongst other functions. Because of the high commercial demand, naturally ripe fruits are scarce, thus; alternative (artificial) ways of making them ripe for consumption has become inevitable and uncontrollable. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effect of Calcium Carbide ripened fruit (Pawpaw) on the Haematological parameters of the Wistar rats. Mature unripe pawpaw’s were plucked off from the parent plant and were divide into two groups, one group was kept and allowed to rip at normal room temperature and the other group was induced with Calcium Carbide to ripe for 48 hours.10g of the CaC2 was placed in a bowl and 5ml of water was used to dissolved it in a closed metal bucket containing 1kg of the fruit [Pawpaw] rapped with black nylon and was allowed for two days [48 hours] for ripening. After ripening, sampled fruits were washed and juiced. 600g of both the naturally ripened and calcium carbide induced ripened fruits [Pawpaw] were peeled separately and blended in an electric blender with 350ml/1L of deionized water. The two sets of juice was filtered with a clean fine sieve and was poured into clean bottles labeled [CaC2 ripened and naturally ripened pawpaw juice]. A total of 21 adult Wister rats of both sexes weighing between 126.9g- 213.3g were used for this study. 9 Wistar rats were used for Sub Acute Test (LD50). The rest 12 Wistar rats were divided into three groups (Control, Natural and CaC2). 5ml/kg of the naturally ripened and calcium carbide induced ripened fruits [Pawpaw] were administered orally to the rats based on the body weight. The rats were weighed weekly, then one rat was sacrificed in each group and blood samples were collected from the three groups for hematological analysis. The result showed reduction in mean Pack Cell Volume, Total White Blood Count, Hemoglobin, Red Blood Cells, Platelets, Neutrophil, Monocytes for both the Wistar rats fed with Naturally ripened and CaC2 ripened groups in comparison with the control group. There is evidence of increase in the mean Lymphocytes level for both the Wistar rats fed with naturally ripened and CaC2 ripened groups in comparison with the control group, but the CaC2 treated group tend to be higher. Eosinophil levels are higher in the CaC2 treated group. In a nutshell, The consumption of fruits ripened with Calcium Carbide pose devastating effect on the bone marrow, deleterious effect on the circulating blood, heart and brain, that will evenly lead to myocardiac infarction, Eosinophilia, Anemia, thrombocythopenia, paralysis, stroke, seizure and mortality may eventually arise.