Abstract

N. Nwachoko* and A. R. Fortune

ABSTRACT

In recent years, there has been a rise in the utilisation of palm oil in Nigeria. This has resulted to increase demand and supply, with demand greater than supply. This gap between demand and supply has been accompanied with an increase in adulteration with Sudan III dye and another related compound. Thus this work was designed to investigate the toxicological effect of adulterated palm oil on the kidney of albino rats. Twenty rats divided into five different groups were used for the investigation. The palm oil was adulterated with Sudan III dye (0.1, 0.2 and 0.5 g/20ml) of palm oil. Group 1 serve as control, group 2 was administered with 1ml of unadulterated palm oil, while groups 3, 4, and 5 were administered with 1ml each of 0.1, 0.2 and 0.5 g of adulterated palm oil respectively for fourteen days, at the end of the experiment, the animals were sacrificed, blood and kidney samples were collected for biochemical and histological analysis. Creatinine, urea and electrolytes concentrations were determined. The result showed that Sudan III dye in palm oil could cause an increase in the parameters checked in a dose-dependent manner. The result of the histological examination revealed kidney debris (scattered remains) and casts (moulds) in some proximal tubules.