Comparative safety profiles of pure and beverage alcohols in wistar rats

Abstract

Background: Alcohol consumption is readily acceptable worldwide with little or no concern for its adverse effects. Objective: The study investigated the comparative effects of pure and alcoholic beverages on Wistar rats to ascertain their level of safety. Methods: Thirty five male albino Wistar rats were administered daily (v/v) pure and beverage alcohol composing 5% alcohol, beer, 15% alcohol, wine and 40% alcohol (spirit), control (saline) by intra-gastric route (IG) for 28 days. On the 29th day, the animals were sacrificed and blood collected for biochemical analysis. The rat brain, liver, kidney and lungs were excised for histological examinations and aliquots of the beverage alcohols were subjected to GC-MS analysis. Results: The activity of ALT was not significantly different in treatment groups when compared with controls. The GGT and AST activities of the treatment groups were significantly different (P<0.05). The rat organ photomicrographs showed that the lungs was most adversely affected, followed by the liver, kidney and brain. The GC-MS chromatograms of the respective beverages contained the following: beer 19, red wine 10 and spirit 16 constituents. Conclusion: The plasma ALT, AST, GGT activities however, did not indicate excess alcohol consumption in the animals although unusual values were observed. The histological profile on the rat organs, showed that there was some form of organ damage implying that these beverages may be injurious to health. In addition, the GC-MS spectroscopy revealed that these alcoholic beverages had different proportions of the chemical constituents, which may portend some futuristic threat to health.