Antiteratogenic Effects of Leaf Extract of Mentha Cordifolia Opiz. (Mint), Allium Sativum L. (Garlic), and Pterocarpus Indicus Willid. (Narra) on Mus Musculus (White Mice)

Abstract

The study was conducted to compare the antiteratogenic effects of leaf extracts from mint, garlic and narra. Specifically, this aimed to determine the fertility, implantation and gestation indices, percentage dead implants, and percentage female resorptions; examine and describe the gross anatomy of the fetuses; and compare the sperm morphology of all treatments. Twenty-five (25) sexually mature male and fifty (50) sexually mature female mice were used in this study. These were randomly allocated to five groups labeled as T0+ (distilled water), T0- (tetracycline), T1 (tetracycline + mint extract), T2 (tetracycline + garlic extract), and T3 (tetracycline + narra extract) with five replicates. Antiteratogenic activities were monitored using dominant Lethal Test. Treatments were administered daily in male mice subcutaneously for six days. Treated mice were allowed to mate with two female mice for 24 hours. Sperm morphology assay was done to all male mice after mating. After 18 days mated female mice were sacrificed and pups were examined for any malformations. Positive control showed 100% fertility, 0% resorption, and fetal lethality while negative control revealed 0% fertility. At 0.3 ml of pure extracts per 20 g mice, narra treated mice significantly increased the frequency of fertile mating’s to 40%, mint to 30% and garlic to 20%; significantly increased implantation to 83% (mint), 85% (garlic), and 82% (narra); significantly decreased the number of females with resorptions to 25%, 33.3% and 50% (mint, narra and garlic, respectively); and significantly decreased the number of dead implantations to 17.6% (garlic), 15.2% (narra), and 4% (mint). Gross morphological examination of pups showed no signs of congenital malformations. Sperm morphology assay revealed significant decrease in the frequency of abnormal sperm cells in mice administered with leaf extracts of mint, garlic and narra.  Keywords: Antiteratogenic effects, Mentha cordifolia Opiz. (mint), Allium sativum L. (garlic), Pterocarpus indicus Willid. (narra), Mus musculus (white), sperm morphology, antifertility