Histological Effects of Chronic Consumption of Nutmeg on the Lateral Geniculate Body of Adult Wistar Rats

The effects of chronic consumption of nutmeg commonly used as a spice in various dishes, as components of teas and soft drinks or mixed in milk and alcohol on the lateral geniculate body of adult wistar rats was studied. The rats of both sexes, with average weight of 200g were randomly assigned into treatment and control groups. The rats in the treatment group (n=8) received 2g of nutmeg thoroughly mixed with the feeds on a daily basis for thirty-two days. The control group (n=8) received equal amount of feeds daily without nutmeg added for thirty-two days. The growers mash feeds was obtained from Edo Feeds and Flour Mill Limited, Ewu, Edo State, Nigeria and the rats were given water liberally. The rats were sacrificed on the thirty-three day of the experiment. The lateral geniculate body was carefully dissected out and quickly fixed in 10% formal saline for histological study. The findings indicate that rats in the treated group showed some cellular degenerative changes like sparse cellular population, pyknotic nuclei with some microcystic changes, edema and vacuolations in the stroma of the treated lateral geniculate body as compared to that of the control group. Chronic consumption of nutmeg may therefore have an adverse effect on the visual sensibilities by affecting the microanatomy of the lateral geniculate body of adult wistar rats. It is recommended for further studies aimed at corroborating these observations.