Plumbagin Causes Abortive Effects When Fed to Pregnant Sprague Dawley Rats during the Late Gestation Period

Abstract

There are many plants in folk medicine which are used as contraceptive or abortive agents during early pregnancy. Plumbago is a genus of 10-20 species of flowering plants in the family Plumbaginaceae, native to warm temperate to tropical regions of the world. Plumbagin is a natural product found in many plants. In this study, plumbagin was obtained from Plumbago rosea. The aim of this study was to determine the effects of plumbagin on pregnant Sprague dawley rats and to observed possible teratogenic effects to foetuses. Mated females were randomly assigned to different experimental groups and treated during mid pregnancy on gestation day (GD) 8-15. The treatment consisted of ingestion by gavage of 32.5 mg/kg per day of plumbagin. All the animals were observed for toxic effects, abortion, water and food consumption, and weighed daily to monitor toxicity throughout the experiment. The maternal weight gain was recorded during the entire pregnancy (total weight gain) and during the treatment period. On day 21 of pregnancy, females were sacrificed by chloroform poisoning, and their uteri removed by Caesarean section. Placenta were taken and weighed while the fetuses undergo fetal staining. The number of fetus was recorded and all fetuses were examined for obvious external malformations before subsequent processing. For skeletal examination, the numbers of skeletal elements were counted and any malformations or variations were recorded. Results were reported as means ± S.E.M. Data were analyzed by one-way ANOVA followed by Duncan test and P<0.05 was considered significant. The results obtained showed that plumbagin has significantly decrease the body weights of pregnant rats when compared to control and olive oil groups where the weight of control, olive oil and plumbagin are 270.71±4.412, 242.75±2.767 and 219.02±1.932 respectively. There was no significant difference in fetal skeletal anomalies between control, olive oil and plumbagin groups. There is only one out of six (1/6) dams with pups in plumbagin group when compared to control and olive oil group which is six out of six (6/6) and five out of seven (5/7) respectively. This preliminary experiment suggests that plumbagin showed significant abortifacient activity in late pregnant Sprague dawley rats and cause acute toxicity to the dams by reducing its body weight without any teratogenic effects.