Antifertility Effect of Costus Lucanuscianusstem Extract in Male Albino Rats

Abstract

Costus lucanuscianus, a medicinal plant locally called ‘monkey sugar cane' in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria, is used in folk medicine for the treatment of diarrhoea, dysmenorrhea, headache and rheumatism. The paucity of information on reproductive effect of Costus lucanuscianus in male animals prompted this study using methanolic stem extract of this plant. Twenty male rats were divided into four groups. Group A (Control) received 0.5ml/kg of 20% Tween 80 (vehicle), Group B (100 mg/kg of extract), Group C (200 mg/kg of extract), Group D (300 mg/kg of extract) by oral gavage daily for 21 days. Thereafter, Animals were anaesthetized and testes collected, homogenized and used for determination of sperm characteristics. Blood was collected for hormonal assay (testosterone) using Enzyme Immunoassay. Histopathological study of the testes and epididymides were conducted. Costus lucanuscianus stem extract (CLSE) had no significant effect (p>0.05) on the testicular and epididymal weights as well as the testosterone level relative to the control. CLSE decreased sperm count, sperm viability, sperm motility and normal sperm morphology in a dose dependent manner. However, CLSE at the dose of 300mg/kg only showed a level of significance (p<0.05) relative to the control. No abnormality was observed in the testicular and epididymal sections of rats in all the treated groups.The findings suggest that C.lucanuscianus possesses anti-fertility properties evidenced by the reduced sperm count and increased sperm cell defects.