Benzylpenicillin Toxicity in Albino Rats Fed Synthetic High Starch Versus High Sugar Diets

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Abstract
The studies reported in this paper were undertaken to investigate the hypothesis of Boyd, Covert and Pitman (Chemotherapia 11: 320, 1966) that the augmented toxicity of benzylpenicillin given orally to albino rates fed a synthetic pyridoxine-deficient diet was due to the presence of large amounts of sucrose in that diet. Benzylpenicillin potassium was given orally in a dose of 5.34 g/kg/day to young adult albino rats fed (a) a diet containing 22 % of casein, 69.4 % of sucrose, 4.0 % of salt mix, 2 % of hydrogenated vegetable oil, 2 % of cod liver oil, 0.5 % of wheat germ oil and adequate vitamin supplements (except pyridoxine) or (b) the same diet but with 69.4 % of cornstarch in place of the 69.4 % sucrose. The death rate and clinicopathologic signs of toxicity to benzylpenicillin were significantly greater in rats fed diet (a) than in those fed diet (b). It was concluded that the fulminating toxicity syndrome seen in animals fed diet (a) was due to a combination of the toxicity of subtoxic amounts of dietary sucrose and sublethal amounts of administered benzylpenicillin over the interval studied.

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