Abstract

Histopathological effects of simultaneous consumption of food additives such as sodium benzoate (SB) and ascorbic acid (AA) on liver of Wistar rats were investigated. A total of forty-eight healthy and active male rats (Wistar rats) of weight range80-100 g were allotted into 12 groups (n=4 each). The treatment lasted for 21 non-consecutive days and SB, AA, and there mixtures were orally administered. At the end of the of experiments, Tissue of interest (liver) from both control and treatments groups were excised, blotted and fixed in sample bottles containing 10% buffered formaldehyde. Standard histological procedures were adopted in the assessment of the tissue. The histo-micrographsreveal the presence of degenerated hepatocytes, dilation of the portal vein, cytoplasmic vacuolation, vacuolation of hepatocyte, dilation of central vein and sinusoid as a result of sodium benzoate. However, a high concentration of ascorbic acid was found to be injurious while low concentration ameliorated the effect of sodium benzoate. Also, liver functions were assessed by measuring serum aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activities by colorimetry. It was observed that ascorbic acid has no negative effect on AST, ALT, and ALP activities, because of its anti-oxidative property. However, it lost its anti-oxidative property at high concentrations in Fanta (an example of food with preservatives) due to aggregation. SB had mild or no effect at low concentration on biochemical parameters but had severe consequences as the concentration increases. The effect of SB can easily be ameliorated by AA because AA suppresses the destructive nature of SB.