EFFECTS OF EDIBLE CLAY ON SERUM LIPID PROFILE OF FEMALE WISTAR RATS

ABSTRACT

Edible clay is a type of ‘‘healing clay’’ which has been traditionally used by man for nutritional and therapeutic purposes. Although there are beneficial effects of edible clay consumption presented by many studies, other studies have shown that this practice equally tends to expose consumers to metal contaminants and toxicity. Serum lipid profile is a standard approach for assessing serum lipid concentration. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of edible clay on serum lipid profile. Forty (40) healthy female Wistar albino rats weighing 150 to 200g were used for this study. The animals were sorted into four groups name group 1 to 4 and further subdivided into 2 subgroups tagged week 2 and week 4 with five rats each (n = 5). Group 1 was the control and orally received distilled water daily, while Groups 2–4 received various doses of edible clay suspension ranging from 200, 800 and 1600 mg/kg respectively, through the same route for 28 days. Five rats were sacrificed from group 1 to 4 on the second and fourth week (each of the subgroups 1 and 2 respectively). Blood samples were collected by cardiac puncture, into anticoagulant‐free bottles and taken for lipid profile analysis. Results were presented as MEAN ± considered significant. The results obtained show that there were no significant change in cholesterol, triglyceride, Low density lipoprotein (LDL) and high density lipoprotein (HDL) concentration in the different doses of edible clay consumption for two weeks (subgroup 1) when compared to the control. There were significant increase in the cholesterol, LDL and HDL concentration following the administration of the new different doses of edible clay after four weeks (subgroup 2) when compared to the control. Edible clay showed hyperlipidemic activities such as increased cholesterol and low density lipoprotein concentration when consumed for a longer duration.