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							| Functional Foods in Health and Disease - Online ISSN: 2160-3855; Print ISSN: 2378-7007



	

				
						
 
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																Functional Foods in Health and Disease - Online ISSN: 2160-3855; Print ISSN: 2378-7007
										

				


				
				
					
					
						
																					
				
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					Vol. 2 No. 5 (2012): May 2012
				
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									Research Articles
							
		



	
		  	 

		
	
		Voluntary Ingestion of Natural Cocoa Extenuated Hepatic Damage in Rats with Experimentally Induced Chronic Alcoholic Toxicity
	


	
	
		

							
					Authors

						
							
								Godwin Sokpor
							
															
									Department of Anatomy, University of Ghana Medical School, College of Health Sciences, Korle-Bu, Accra
																	
																																		
	
							
								Frederick Kwaku Addai
							
															
									Department of Anatomy, University of Ghana Medical School, College of Health Sciences, Korle-Bu, Accra
																	
																																		
	
							
								Richard Kwasi Gyasi
							
															
									Department of Pathology, University of Ghana Medical School, College of Health Sciences, Korle-Bu, Accra
																	
																																		
	
							
								Kwasi Agyei Bugyei
							
															
									Department of Pharmacology, University of Ghana Medical School, College of Health Sciences, Korle-Bu, Accra
																	
																																		
	
							
								John Ahenkorah
							
															
									Department of Anatomy, University of Ghana Medical School, College of Health Sciences, Korle-Bu, Accra
																	
																																		
	
							
								Bismarck Hottor
							
															
									Department of Anatomy, University of Ghana Medical School, College of Health Sciences, Korle-Bu, Accra
																	
																																		


				
			
																	
					
												DOI:
					

					
						
							https://doi.org/10.31989/ffhd.v2i5.91
						
					
				
			

						
										
					Abstract

					Background: Chronic ethanol ingestion causes hepatic damage imputable to an increased oxidative stress engendered by alcoholic toxicity. Polyphenols in cocoa have antioxidant properties, and natural cocoa powder (NCP) contains the highest levels of total antioxidant capacity when compared to all other kinds of edible cocoa products. This study tested the hypothesis that dietary supplementation with NCP mitigates hepatic injury resulting from chronic ethanol consumption. Three groups of eight randomized Sprague-Dawley rats were fed standard rat food and treated daily for 12 weeks as follows: (i) the Ethanol-water group was given unrestricted access to 40% (v/v) ethanol for 12 hours (at night) followed by water for the remaining 12 hours (daytime), (ii) the Ethanol-cocoa group had similarly unrestricted access to 40% ethanol for 12 hours followed by 2% (w/v) NCP for 12 hours, and (iii) the control group was not given alcohol and had unrestricted access to only water which was synchronously replenished every 12 hours as it was for the ethanol treated animals.
Results: Qualitative structural liver damage evidenced by hepatocyte cytoplasmic fatty accumulation, nuclear alterations, and disruption of general liver micro-architecture, was severe in the ethanol-water group when compared with the ethanol-cocoa group of rats. Design-based stereologic assessment yielded a significantly greater volume (Tukey’s HSD, p = 0.0005) of undamaged hepatocytes (9.61 ml, SD 2.18 ml) in the ethanol-cocoa group as opposed to the ethanol-water group of rats (2.34 ml, SD 1.21 ml). Control rats had 10.34 ml (SD 1.47 ml) of undamaged hepatocytes, and that was not significantly greater (Tukey’s HSD, p=0.659) than the value for the ethanol-cocoa group of rats. Relative to controls, therefore, histomorphometry showed 93% hepatocyte preservation from alcoholic injury in rats that voluntarily imbibed NCP suspension compared with 23% in animals that drank water.
Conclusions: Ethanol-induced structural liver injury was qualitatively and quantitatively milder in rats which chronically imbibed alcohol then afterward drank NCP beverage in place of water. The antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties of polyphenols in NCP are postulated in mitigating the damage of rat liver due to chronic ethanol consumption. Thus, it is suggested from these findings that regular drinking of NCP beverage may slow progression of alcoholic liver disease in dipsomaniacs.
Key words: natural cocoa powder, chronic alcoholic toxicity, total antioxidant capacity, polyphenols

				
			
			

						
																																																						
						
		


		

						
										
					
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						Published
					

					
																			2012-05-28
																	

				
							

			
						
										

											
							
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									Vol. 2 No. 5 (2012): May 2012
								
							

						
					
											
							
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								Research Articles
							

						
					
									

			
						
										
					
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