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The present study explored the effect of virgin coconut oil on oxidative stress, testosterone and gonadotropic hormones in alcohol-induced testicular injury. Twenty-five male rats were randomly assigned to one of five groups (n=5). The oil was processed from the mature endosperm of coconut and administered at 6.7 ml/kg body weight, while alcohol was given orally at 7 ml/kg body weight. After sacrifice, testicular malondialdehyde and serum hormone levels were determined. Testicular malondialdehyde levels increased significantly in animals treated with alcohol alone (p < 0.001), and animals treated with alcohol following virgin coconut oil treatment (p < 0.05) while the other groups showed a significant decrease (p < 0.05) when compared with the control. However, when compared with the group treated with alcohol alone, all the other groups showed a significant decrease (p < 0.05) in testicular malondialdehyde level. Serum testosterone levels increased significantly (p < 0.05) in rats treated with virgin coconut oil when compared with the alcohol-only treated group, while serum FSH and LH levels were not significantly different from the control values in all the treatment groups. Virgin coconut oil effectively lowered alcohol-induced oxidative stress by reducing testicular malondialdehyde levels and ameliorated the deleterious effect of alcohol on serum testosterone level, but showed no effect on serum FSH and LH levels.

Combretum racemosum (P. Beauv.) (Combretaceae), a straggling shrub widespread across Africa is traditionally reputed to be anthelmintic and antimicrobial for genito-urinary and gastrointestinal infections. The methanol and ethyl acetate crude extracts obtained from the whole plant were evaluated invital to determine inhibition of human pathogenic micro organisms made up of five bacteria and three fungi. The extracts inhibited the eight test organisms to different degrees. All the bacteria strains were sensitive to both extracts at concentration ranging from 25 to 125 mg/ml using the agar broth cup diffusion procedure. The sensitivity of Salmonella typhii, Escherica coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (gram negative) to both extracts were not concentration dependent, whereas sensitivity of Bacillus subtilis and Staphylococcus aureus (gram positive) were concentration dependent with activity being higher at higher concentrations of ethyl acetate extract. Only the methanol extract exhibited intrinsic antifungal properties on Candida albicans, Asperigillus niger and Dermatophyte sp. with activity comparable to that of the reference drug tioconazole trosyd. Preliminary phytochemical screening of both extracts indicated the presence of alkaloids, steroids, cardiac glycosides, saponins and tannins.

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