African Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 5 (17), pp. 1557-1561, 4 September 2006   

ISSN 1684–5315 © 2006 Academic Journals        

Full Length Research Paper

Effects of honey-supplemented diet on the parasitemia and some enzymes of Trypanosoma brucei-infected rats

J. T. Ekanem¹*, O. R. Majolagbe¹, F. A. Sulaiman¹ and N. O. Muhammad²

¹Trypanosomosis Research and ²Nutritional Biochemistry Units, Department of Biochemistry, University of Ilorin, Ilorin, Nigeria.

*Corresponding authors E-mail: jtekanem@yahoo.com.

Trypanosoma brucei-infected rats were treated with natural honey and honey-supplemented diet at three days before infection (prophylaxis), early and late stages of infection. Proximate percentage composition of the honey was 71.19±0.90% carbohydrate, 3.28±0.05% protein and 10.68±0.27% lipid among others. Prophylactic treatment with natural honey extended the lifespan of infected rats by 13 extra days from a control of 12 days post infection while early and late stage treatments extended the lifespan by 10 and 5 days, respectively. Prophylactic feeding with honey-supplemented diet extended the lifespan by 6 extra days while early and late stage feeding extended it for 5 and 3 days, respectively. A specific pattern could not be established for alkaline phosphatase (ALP), glutamate oxaloacetate transaminase (GOT) and glutamate pyruvate transaminase (GPT) enzyme activities in the liver and serum. We conclude that honey even as part of a regular diet could be a useful, cheap and readily presentable agent in the management of African sleeping sickness for residents of disease endemic areas.

Key words: Honey, diet, sleeping sickness, management.