Twenty-four, adult male albino rats of approximate weight 100–120 g were obtained from animal house facility of Defence Research and Development Establishment (DRDE), Gwalior. Prior to dosing, rats were acclimatized for 7 days to light from 06:00 to 18:00 h alternating with 12 h darkness. The animals were housed in stainless steel cages in an air-conditioned room with temperature maintained at 25 ± 2 ◦C. Rats were allowed standard chow diet (Amrut feeds, Pranav Agro, New Delhi, India; metal contents of diet, in mg/kg dry weight, Cu 10.0, Zn 45.0, Mn 55.0, Co 5.0, Fe 75.0) throughout the experiment and water was given ad libitum