Abstract

Radioprotective ability of honey was considered on X-radiation red blood cells using UV- Spectrophotometry. Radiotherapy and exposure to ionizing radiation like X-ray damages red blood haemoglobin and human tissue hence there is need for radioprotection. An adult human blood was collected and stored for three weeks. The blood was divided into eight groups, centrifuged to collect the RBCs. Three were treated with natural honey, three were without honey and all irradiated at 50, 70, 100 kVp respectively using X-ray machine (MDX-100- RMS). The two remaining groups, one was neither treated nor irradiated and the other was treated but not irradiated to serve as normal control and positive control respectively. The RBCs spectra were recorded using a UV-Vis spectrophotometer over a wavelength range of 700 – 250 nm. The RBCs absorbance spectrum in the UV domain was obtained as follows: control sample (409.00 nm, 5.447), positive control sample (409.00 nm, 3.792), sample irradiated without honey at 50, 70 and 100 kVp (409.00 nm, 3.103), (376.00 nm, 5.069), (407.00 nm, 2.092), sample irradiated with honey at 50 70 and 100 kVp (404.00 nm, 2.133), (411.00 nm, 1.093), (402.00 nm, 1.347) respectively. The result suggests that X-radiation has affected the hemoglobin content of the different RBCs groups and honey partially protected the hemoglobin content from the damage caused by the free radicals created as a result of exposure to X-radiation when compared with the control RBCs.