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ABSTRACT
The various parts of Aadansonia digitata (African baobab) has long been used in herbal recipes because of its various therapeutic purposes such as antiviral activity, antibacterial activity, anti-inflammatory activity, hepato-protective activity, antimalarial, antidiabetic et.c. Adansonia digitata root bark is believed to be beneficial to the female reproductive system. However, no scientific data on verifying the effect of the root bark on the uterus, hence the reason for this laboratory investigation. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of Adansonia digitata root extract (morning and evening)on the uterus and its possible mechanism of action on uterine contractility. Non-pregnant mice were humanely sacrificed by cervical dislocation and uteri removed. The effects of Adansonia digitata root bark extract at its EC50 concentration (5.2mg/mL) on spontaneous, oxytocin, KCl-induced tonic-contractions and Ca2+ free PSS were investigated. After establishment of phasic contractions for 10mins as control, the evening extract remarkably inhibited spontaneous, oxytocin, KCl-induced tonic-contractions and Ca2+ free PSS uterine contractility (n=5). This procedure was repeated for the morning extract and no significant inhibition was recorded. Therefore, the evening root bark extract of Adansonia digitata (ADE) has been shown to potentially inhibit non-uterine contractions in non-pregnant isolated myometrium while the inhibitory effect of the morning root bark extract (ADM) showed no significant inhibitory effect. The inhibitory effect of ADEhas been shown to occur through the blockade of extracellular and intracellular calcium. ADE has been shown in this study to be a lead plant in the discovery of new drugs with uterine inhibitory activity while ADM is subject for further investigations.
Keywords: Adansonia digitata;uterus; root bark extract; oxytocin
