Abstract

Vernonia amygdalina and Vernonia colorata are widely used in medicinal plant preparations in sub-saharan Africa. Certain dietary constituents can potentiate or reduce the potency of toxins such as AFB1. The effect of dietary incorporation of V. amygdalina and V. colorata on some biochemical and histopathological indices in albino rats was studied. V. amygdalinaand V. colorata were incorporated into diets compounded to isocaloric and isonitrogenous and fed to mature male alimo rats administered 250 mg/kg Aflatoxin B1 over a 12 week period. Bioactivity studies using brine shrimp lethality test indicate that methanolic extracts ofV. amygdalina. del and V. colorata had higher bioactivity (ED50 121. 47 μg/mI and 761.8 μg/mI, respectively) than their aqueous extracts 819.5 and 1,999.85 μg/mI respectively). Alanine amino transaminase (ALT) activity increased significantly (P ≤ 0.05) relative to control group (Gp1) in groups fed V. colorata with or without AFB1 treatment but showed no significant increase in groups fed V. amygdalina with or without AFB1. Treatment of V.colorata fed animals with AFB1 (Gp3) resulted in marked increase in alkaline phosphatase activity. Increase in Aspartate amino transaminase (AST) activities were not significantly different from those of animals fed only with V. colorata without AFB1 . Administration of AFB1 resulted in a significant increase in alkaline phosphatase activity in groups fed V.colorata, but not in groups fed V. amygdalina. Groups fed V. amygdalina + AFB1 showed no significant changes in ALT and AST. These findings suggest that while the feeding of V. amygdalina may have hepatoprotective effects, the feeding of V. colorata may potentiate the toxic effects of toxins such as AFB1. Histopathological studies on the liver show that the feeding of the two vegetable had varieties affect by the liver in different ways.

Key words: Vernonia amygdalin, Vernonia colorata, AFB1, serum enzymes, bioactivity.