Background: the use of food additives is one of the most important problems in the human health nutrition field. Food additives are widely used for various purposes; including preservation, coloring, and sweetening, however, the physiological and biochemical changes may be produced.
Aim of the work: was to investigate the protective role of royal jelly (RJ) against abnormalities in metabolic biochemical parameters that induced by these food additives in male albino rats.
Materials and Methods: thirty young male albino rats with an average body weight 120-140 g were divided into three groups (10/cage); Group I: served as normal control group, Group II: rats orally administrated with the mixture which consists of sodium nitrite (NaNO2 0.1 mg/kg b.wt./ day), annatto (0.065 mg/kg b.wt./day) and monosodium glutamate (MSG 15 mg/kg b.wt./day) and Group III: rats orally administrated with the previous mixture and then orally administrated with royal jelly (14.28 mg/kg b.wt./day soluble in maize oil). At the end of the experiment, blood samples were collected for biochemical estimations which including levels of serum glucose, creatinine, urea, testosterone, thyroid hormones (T3 and T4), activities of AST and ALT, total protein (TP), albumin, total cholesterol, triglycerides, high-density lipoprotein (HDL-c) and low-density lipoprotein (LDL-c). Results: the present study showed marked elevation in levels of fasting blood glucose, activities of AST, ALT, levels of serum urea, creatinine, TC, TG, LDL-c, VLDLand ratios of TC/HDL-c and LDL-c/HDL-c (risk factors) as well as albumin /globulin ratio and serum thyroid hormones (T3&T4) accompanied with significant reduction in the body weight, serum total proteins, albumin, globulin, albumin/creatinine, testosterone and HDL-C concentrations in the group that administrated with the mixture which consists of (NaNO2, MSG and annatto) as compared to control rats. While administration with royal jelly significantly ameliorated the disturbed biochemical parameters and showed significant improvement in most of these parameters. Conclusion: it could be concluded that royal jelly offers a therapeutic advantage that minimizes the metabolic abnormalities and biochemical changes which induced by these food additives.