Scientific African 12 (2021) e00782 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Scientific African journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/sciaf Ameliorative prowess of bee honey in the tissues of rats administered aluminium nitrate Lisa Ilobekemen Ekakitie a , Joel Okpoghono b,∗ , Osuvwe Clement Orororo c , Ovakporae Andrew Ekakitie b a Department of Biochemistry, College of Sciences, Afe Babalola University, PMB 5454, Ado-Ekiti, 360001, Nigeria b Department of Chemical Science, College of Natural and Applied Sciences, Novena University, Ogume, PMB 2, Kwale, Delta State, Nigeria c Department of Chemical Science, Faculty of Science, Edwin Clark University, Kiagbodo, Delta State, Nigeria a r t i c l e i n f o Article history: Received 14 May 2020 Revised 26 April 2021 Accepted 2 May 2021 Keywords: Aluminium nitrate Antioxidative stress Bee honey Tissues Toxicity a b s t r a c t Humans have a strong link of exposure to aluminium nitrate [Al (NO 3 ) 3 ] toxicity from var- ious sources. This study examined physicochemical properties and varied concentrations of bee honey (BH) in ameliorating aluminium (Al) toxicity. Thirty albino Wistar rats were used for this study. They were separated into six Groups of five rats each. Group 1 served as control, Group 2 was given Al (NO 3 ) 3 only, Group 3, 4, 5 and 6 were given Al (NO 3 ) 3 then treated with 10 %, 25 %, 50 % and 100 % BH daily for 2 weeks. Aluminium nitrate was administered at a dose of 6.5 mg/kg, intraperitoneally. The physicochemical contents of BH were the same with international standard (IS). There were significant (p < 0.05) de- creases in SOD, CAT, GSH and increased MDA level in the liver, kidney and brain of Group 2 when compared with Group 1. Treatment with 50 % BH significantly (p < 0.05) increased SOD, CAT, GSH and decreased MDA levels when compared with Group 2. No significant differences were indicated in CAT, SOD, GSH and MDA in the tissues of Group 3 and 6 in comparison with Group 2. However, liver histology of rats treated with 50 % BH revealed normal hepatic cells same as the control. This study strongly suggested that BH could re- store altered antioxidant parameters and liver histology. In addition, BH at moderate intake it could be good alternative chelating agent for Al toxicity. © 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of African Institute of Mathematical Sciences / Next Einstein Initiative. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) 1. Introduction Aluminium (Al) is one of the abundant metallic elements in the earth’s crust. Al (NO 3 ) 3 is a big factor in our daily lives. Electricity in residences and places of work, leather goods, insulating papers etc., possibly have link to Al (NO 3 ) 3 [1]. The main food sources of Al include; hard cheese, grain products (flour), tealeaves and herbs [2]. Aluminium salts (antiperspirants) are good sources of Al exposure [3]. Parenteral nutritional substances also give some exposure of Al to ∗ Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: ekaslisa080@gmail.com (L.I. Ekakitie), okpoghono@gmail.com (J. Okpoghono), osuvwec@yahoo.com (O.C. Orororo), ekakitie@gmail.com (O.A. Ekakitie). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sciaf.2021.e00782 2468-2276/© 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of African Institute of Mathematical Sciences / Next Einstein Initiative. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)