ABSTRACT
Red Palm Oil (RPO), extracted from fruits of Elaeis guineensis, is a complex mixture consisting of over 99 per cent glycerides and about 1 per cent non-glyceride compounds. Its orange-red colour is due to its high content of carotenoid pigments, mainly alpha- and beta-carotene. Based on the fact that palm oil is a rich source of provitamin A, and because it is largely consumed in North and Northeastern Brazil, we evaluated possible clastogenic and cytotoxic activities of this oil on mouse bone marrow cells in vivo, as well as the alpha- and beta-carotene content. The experiments were performed using samples of refined and crude palm oil, of which two different phases, supernatant, sediment, and the mixture of both, were tested. The animals were treated by gavage, at daily doses of 4.5 g/Kg, for five consecutive days, and killed 24 hours after the last treatment, for chromosome preparations. The negative control group was treated with corn oil. There was no statistically significant difference in the frequency of chromosomal aberrations and in mitotic index when the animals which received palm oil were compared with the negative control. The beta-carotene content was higher than that of alpha-carotene, and the supematant phase was the richest source of carotenoids. These findings suggest that RPO has no genotoxic effect.
Subject(s)
Animals , Mice , Carotenoids/analysis , Bone Marrow/cytology , Mutagens/toxicity , Plant Oils/toxicity , Palm Oil , Chromosome Aberrations , Mitotic Index , Mutagenicity TestsABSTRACT
E relatado um caso de encefalite a virus, tendo o paciente desenvolvido no decurso da evolucao a sindrome de Kluver-Bucy. Inicialmente sao feitas consideracoes a respeito da etiologia do processo virotico, ressaltando os autores a provavel participacao do virus "herpes simplex" na origem do quadro. Os exames complementares realizados (liquido cefalo cefalorraqueano, eletrencefalograma, tomografia computadorizada e biopsia cerebral) sao altamente sugestivos de etiologia virotica. A seguir a sindrome de Kluver-Bucy e analisada nas suas varias vertentes: baixa incidencia no ser humano, aspectos clinicos e fisiopatologicos