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Abstract
Oil pollution in the Niger Delta area of Nigeria has poised a major health challenge to inhabitants of the area. The government had paid little or no attention to the plight of these people as regards to their health. This study sought to assess the protective effect of ethanolic leaf extract of Moringa oleifera on haematological indices of rats fed with crude oil-treated diet. Twenty adult Wistar rats were used for this study. They were divided into four groups and fed accordingly: animals in group A was feed with 100 g of standard feed only (Control group), Group B with 100 g of standard feed +10 g of extract of M. oleifera, group C with 100 g of standard feed + 4 ml of crude oil and group D with 100 g of standard feed + 10 g of 4 ml of crude oil + extract of M. oleifera leaves. At the end of thirty days treatment, animals were fasted overnight and anaesthetized using diethyl ether. Blood samples were collected by cardiac puncture. Haematological parameters were determined using standard methods. Crude oil significantly reduced the haematological indices of animals used in this experiment when compared with the control group at p<0.05 but this effect was alleviated by M. oleifera leaf extract. This indicates that crude oil treat-diet down-regulated the haematological parameters of animals after thirty days treatment. This might be what happens in humans and animals living in the Niger Delta area of Nigeria who are continuously exposed to crude oil. However, this negative effect was annulled by M. oleifera leaves.