The toxicity profile of medicinal plants is an important preclinical requirement in the development of phytomedicines. The cytotoxic and genotoxic effects of the leaf of Uvaria chamae P. Beauv (Annonaceae) and stem bark of Morinda lucida Benth (Rubiaceae) were investigated in order to provide information on their safety as antimalarial plants. The methanol extract of U. chamae and ethanol (70%) extract of M. lucida were separately orally administered (125, 250, and 750 mg/kg/day) to mice for 10 consecutive days. Cyclophosphamide (50 mg/kg, single dose) and distilled water were used as positive and negative controls, respectively. The mice were injected with colchicine (0.04%) intra-peritoneally 24 h after the last administration of the extracts and the bone marrows harvested. Giemsa-stained slides of bone marrow cells were microscopically assessed for dividing cells to determine the mitotic index (MI) and scored for chromosomal aberrations (CA) according to standard methods. chamae exhibited dose-dependent cytotoxicity. At 750 mg/kg, the MI was significantly (p < 0.05) lower (1.81 ± 0.04) than that of cyclophosphamide (5.83 ± 0.04). The lower the MI, the higher the cytotoxicity. The activity of M. lucida was not significantly different (p > 0.05) from that of the negative control. The total CA observed from treatment with both plants at all doses were significantly (p < 0.05) greater than that of control. This study concluded that U. chamae showed both cytotoxicity and genotoxicity while M. lucida exerted only genotoxic effect. Nevertheless, the two plants should be used with caution in antimalarial therapy.
AIM:In this study, Epithelial Growth Factor Receptor and Platelet Endothelial Cell Adhesion Molecule-1 were localised to investigate the healing effects of a flavonoid-rich fraction of M. paradisiaca fruit in the gastric corpus of Wistar rats following aspirin-induced gastric lesion.MATERIALS AND METHODS:Mature, unripe fruits of M. paradisiaca were peeled; air dried, pulverised, extracted with 70% methanol, concentrated and partitioned. Ninety male Wistar rats were randomly assigned into 6 groups of 15 rats each. The gastric lesion was induced in groups B, C, D, E and F rats by administration of 400 mg/kg aspirin in distilled water. Group A received distilled water. After 24 hours, flavonoid fraction of M. paradisiaca was administered to groups C, D and E at 100, 200 and 400 mg/kg respectively for 21 days. Group F rats received omeprazole at 1.8 mg/kg for 21 days. Five rats from each group were anaesthetized with ketamine on days 14, 21 and 28. Gastric tissues were excised and fixed in Neutral buffered formalin. This was followed by paraffin wax embedding method and sections stained with haematoxylin and eosin and for immunolocalisation of EGFR and PECAM-1. Data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics.RESULTS:There was a significant difference in the ulcer index in the corpus of control and treated rats throughout the experimental period (p = 0.0001). H&E stained sections showed a gradual restoration of the epithelial lining in the treated groups. Immunohistochemical examination showed that M. paradisiaca significantly increased (p < 0.05) reactivity for both EGFR and CD31 across the treatment groups.CONCLUSION:The efficacy of Musa paradisiaca in attenuating the damaging effects of aspirin on the gastric mucosa was observed as there was a significantly increased reactivity for EGFR and PECAM-1 in the gastric corpus in a dose-dependent manner.
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