Blood parameters of wistar albino rats fed processed tropical sickle pod (Senna obtusifolia) leaf meal-based diets

A feeding trial was conducted for 28 d to evaluate the effects of feeding albino rats with processed Senna obtusifolia leaf meal (SOLM) based diets. Five experimental diets were compounded to contain 0% and 20% each of the sun-dried, boiled, fresh fermented, and boiled and fermented SOLM-based diets designated as T₁, T₂, T₃, T₄, and T_5, respectively. A total of 90 young albino rats with initial weight of 13.52-14.48 g were randomly allocated to the dietary treatments in a completely randomized design with three replicates of six rats each. The hematological parameters revealed nonsignificant (P > 0.05) difference except for the rats fed the sun-dried SOLM-based diet, which had the lowest packed cell volume (34%), red blood cell (5.32 × 10⁶/µ/L), and hemoglobin (13.67 g/dL). The hematological values recorded were, however, within the normal reference ranges. The biochemical indices were also not significantly (P > 0.05) different. The total protein, creatinine, alanine aminotransferase, and total bilirubin recorded were within the ranges of 71.50-77.73 g/L, 1.03-1.23 mg/dL, 20.67-24.37 µ/L, and 10.13-11.67 µ/L, respectively. It was concluded that the different processed SOLM-based diets had no adverse effects on the blood parameters of the albino rats and are, therefore, recommended for feeding albino rats.