BIOCHEMICAL RESPONSE OF WEANLING WISTAR RATS ADMINISTERED CRUDE EXTRACTS OF Moringa oleifera (Lam) LEAF

Abstract

Leaf meal contains phytochemicals known to influence performance and health status when included in animal diets. Moringa oleifera (MO) crude extracts are rich in phytochemicals which could be harnessed for boosting animal health. There is dearth of information on response of rats to MO phytochemical fractions. Hence, effects of phytochemical fractions from MO Leaves (MOL) on biochemical response of Weanling Wistar Rats (WWR) were investigated. The MOL were harvested from plants grown in the field for 20 weeks, air-dried and milled (45.6µm). Crude Extract of MOL (CEMOL) was obtained with methanol using soxhlet apparatus. The CEMOL was further partitioned into Crude Alkaloid Extract (CAE), Crude Saponin Extract (CSE) and Crude Tannin Extract (CTE) by column chromatography. The CEMOL, CAE, CSE and CTE were administered to WWR (n=130, 41.27±0.02 g) daily by oral drenching at 1.0, 1.5 and 2.0 mg/mL in a completely randomised design for three weeks. Distilled water served as control. Daily Feed Intake (DFI) and Weight Gain (WG) were measured. Blood (5 mL) was sampled and analysed for White Blood Cells (WBC), Total cholesterol (TC) and Immunoglobulins D, E, G and M content (mg/dL) using standard procedures. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics and ANOVA at α0.05. Yield of CAE, CSE and CTE in CEMOL were 25%, 16% and 17%, respectively. Response of WWR to the different levels of treatments differed significantly. The DFI ranged from 22.0±7.0 g (2.0 mg/mL CAE) to 39.3±1.2 g (1.0 mg/mL CAE). The WG of WWR reduced with increasing levels of treatments. The WWR on 2.0 mg/mL CSE had the lowest WG (7.6±4.7 g) which was not significantly different from 8.1±7.0 g (2.0 mg/mL CAE), 10.6±0.1 g (1.5 mg/mL CSE) and 11.7±2.8 g (2.0 mg/mL CTE), while WWR on control treatment had the highest WG (38.5±0.8 g). The WBC of WWR treated with 1.5 mg/mL CTE (8.1±0.2x103/µL), 1.0 mg/mL CEMOL (8.9±0.1x103/µL), 1.0 mg/mL CTE (8.2±0.2x103/µL) and 2.0 mg/mL CTE (8.2±0.1x103/µL) and control (8.16±0.1x103/µL) were similar, but significantly lower than those treated with 2.0 mg/mL of CEMOL (12.3±0.1x103/µL), CAE (12.6±0.1x103/µL) and CSE (13.3±0.4x103/µL). The TC of WWR differed significantly and decreased with increasing level of treatments except for CTE where the reverse was the case. The TC of WWR ranged from 34.0±4.4 mg/dL (2.0 mg/dL CAE) to 72.3±6.5 mg/dL (1.0 mg/dL CAE). Immunoglobulins D, E, G and M contents ranged from 199.10±1.00 (1.0 mg/mL CTE) to 340.6±5.0 (2.0 mg/mL CAE), 0.40±0.01 (1.0 mg/mL CTE) to 0.70±0.01 (2.0 mg/mL CAE), 648.10±0.00 (2.0 mg/mL CTE) to 1027.80±0.01 (1.0 mg/mL CAE) and 110.90±10.01 (1.0 mg/mL CTE) to 197.30±3.00 (1.0 mg/mL CAE), respectively. Crude extract of moringa leaves; crude alkaloid extract and crude saponin extracts at 2.0 mg/mL reduced weight and lowered cholesterol in rats. Immunoglobulins were improved by crude alkaloid extract at 1.0 mg/mL.