Thesis Abstract

The study was carried out to investigate the activities respiratory complex IV in the liver of normal and protein undernourished wistar rats fed with cassava peel. Twenty weaning male rats were grouped into four groups, five rats for each. Group A were fed with normal diets, Group B were fed with low protein diets containing 5% casein, Group C were fed with normal diets and coconut oil and Group D were fed with low protein diet and coconut oil. After feeding for a period of six weeks, the rats were sacrificed using cervical dislocation. The liver was harvested and homogenized in iced cold buffer and centrifuged at 4000rpm for 15 minutes. The pellets were discarded and the supernatant was stored.

It was observed from this study that consumption of low protein diets significantly reduced the activities of cytochrome oxidase in the rat liver when compared to normal diet. However, the activities of cytochrome oxidase were significantly reduced in the rat liver when the rats were fed with normal and cassava peel diets compared to normal diet only. Also, low protein and cassava peel diets significantly reduced the activities of cytochrome oxidase in the rat liver when compared to normal diet. It was observed from this study that in the rat liver, the activities of cytochrome oxidase was significantly increased when the rats were fed with normal and cassava peel diets compared to low protein diet only. However, when the rats were fed with low protein diet and cassava peel, the diets significantly increased the activities of cytochrome oxidase compared to both normal and cassava peel and low protein diet only. This study shows that consumption of cassava peel significantly reduced the level of normal diets while it significantly increased the level of low protein diets.

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