No abstract

T . foenum-gruecum seed extract (100 mgldaylrat) was fed orally to male albino rats for 60 days. The sperm count and motility of cauda spermatozoa declined significantly leading to negative fertility tests. The organ weights as well as androgen dependent parameters (protein, sialic acid and fructose) were lower, revealing the reduction in circulating androgen. Cholesterol is a precursor of androgen. The increase in testicular and serum cholesterol may be co-related with its nonutilization by the system, leading to a fall in circulating androgen and hence the altered histoarchitecture observed. Therefore T . foenum-gruecum extract exerts both antifertility and antiandrogenic activities.

No abstract

The emergence of antibiotic resistance has caused a threat to both human and animal population. This research was designed to investigate and compare the antibiotic resistance of bacteria isolated from chicken and dogs. A hundred and twelve samples of freshly dead chicken and eighty nine blood samples of sick dogs were analyzed. Pure culture of isolates were identified using cultural, morphological and biochemical characteristic. In vitro, susceptibility of the identified isolates against antimicrobial agents were determined by the standard disk diffusion procedure. One hundred and six isolates were recovered from chicken while 27 isolates were recovered from dogs. The organisms isolated include E. coli, Haemophilus sp, Pasturella sp, Klebsiella sp, Enterobacter sp, Salmonella sp, Staphylococcus sp., Micrococcus sp., Pseudomonas sp, Proteus sp, and Listeria sp. The antibiotic resistance showed that, gram-negative bacteria showed more resistance to the antibiotics used in this research compare to the gram-positive bacteria. This trend was found in isolates from both dog and chicken. In like manner, the bacteria isolates recovered from chicken showed a greater resistance when compare with the bacteria isolates recovered from dog. The increased resistance found in poultry makes poultry a suspect of residual resistance gene and probably reservoir for transmission.

Oral administration of aqueous extract of seeds of Cassia fistula to mated female rats from day 1-5 of pregnancy at the doses of 100 and 200 mg/kg body weight resulted in 57.14% and 71.43% prevention of pregnancy, respectively, whereas 100% pregnancy inhibition was noted at 500 mg/kg bw. In the uterine bioassay test carried out in immature bilaterally ovariectomized female rats, aqueous extract of seeds of Cassia fistula (100 mg/kg bw) increased the uterine wet weight (p<0.05) and luminal epithelial cell height (p<0.001) but did not induce premature opening of the vagina. This suggests a mild estrogenic activity of the extract. However, when the extract was administered conjointly with estradiol valerate (EDV, 0.1 mg/kg bw), it significantly (p<0.001) prevented the estrogen-induced uterotrophic effect, thus showing an antiestrogenic nature of the extract in the presence of a strong estrogen.