Wistar albino rats (weighing 180-205 g at the start of
the study) were obtained from the animal house of the
Department of Physiology, University of Nigeria, Enugu
Campus. Studies were conducted in compliance with the
applicable laws and regulations for handling experimental
animals. The rats were weighed and sorted into nine groups
(Table 1) of five animals each, so that their average weights
were approximately equal. The animals were housed in
plastic cages at the animal house of the Department of
Biochemistry, University of Port Harcourt. After a oneweek
acclimatization period on guinea growers mash (Port
Harcourt Flour Mills, Port Harcourt, Nigeria), the animals
were fasted overnight, and their baseline fasting blood
glucose level determined using a glucometer, by collecting
blood via tail cut. Diabetes was induced by injection of a
freshly prepared solution of alloxan (80 mg/kg body weight)
in normal saline, via the tail vein of six groups, while the
control rats were injected with normal saline alone. The
dosage of administration of alloxan was adopted from
Radwan[14]. Three days after administration of the alloxan,
the animals were again fasted and blood collected via
tail cutting blood[15], for the determination of their fasting
glucose levels. It was found that the rats had moderate
diabetes, having hyperglycemia (that is, with blood glucose
of over 180% of the control). Then the rats were kept for