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ABSTRACT
Beans is one of the natural sources of cyanide because of the presence of cyanogenic glycosides in the plant and it has been identified as one of the causes of cyanide poisoning. It is a staple food commonly consumed in West Africa. This study was aimed at determining the cyanide concentration in different types of beans and the impact of cyanide in beans on the survival of Drosophila melanogaster. Beans samples were collected from Oba market, Oredo local government area, Edo State. The samples were collected into sterile sample containers and transported to the laboratory for further analysis. The cyanide content of the samples were determined using the picrate method of cyanide determination. A survival study was carried by exposing the flies to varying concentrations of the beans extract. The flies were exposed to different treatment groups, the control group and 5 other groups containing 7.30µg/ml, 11.65µg/ml, 15.14µg/ml, 17.74µg/ml and 28.09µg/ml of cyanide content respectively and the mortality of flies was recorded daily for a period of 21 days. After every 5 days, the diet of the drosophila melanogaster was changed. On day 6, group 1 (7.30µg/ml) had a survival rate of 92%, group 2 (11.65µg/ml) had 89.3%, group 3 (15.14µg/ml) had 85.3%, group 4 (17.74µg/ml) had 81.3%, and group 5 (28.09µg/ml) had 77.3%. At the end of the survival study, group 1 had a survival rate of 62.6%, group 2 had 54.6% group 3 had 49.3%, group 4 had 42.6% and group 5 had 32%. The survival study showed a significant increase in the mortality of flies with time in groups 1 – 5, and group 5 which had the highest concentration of extract, had the lowest survival rate of the entire experimental groups. This study suggests that the beans did have some negative significant effect on exposure to the model organism. There is a need for close monitoring of the processing and preparation of the marketed food products to reduce its cyanide content and also relevant government agencies should mount aggressive campaigns to sensitive and educate farmers and the general public of the possible negative outcomes that excessive intake of beans products may cause due to the cyanide its cyanide content.
