ABSTRACT
Infertility in women, is the inability of a woman to become pregnant, maintain pregnancy, or carry pregnancy to live birth. Infertility is a worldwide problem that has caused anguish and destruction of marriages. The high cost, inaccessibility and serious side effects of conventional infertility treatment has resulted to increased use of traditional procedures such as plant material; even though many of these treatment patterns have not been scientifically validated. The practice of using selected plant combination (Uvaria chamae, Prioria balsamifera, Biophytum petersianum and Cassytha filiformis) to cure infertility in Urualla (a community in Imo-state) has been handed over from one generation to the other but there is no scientific documentation or proof to show that these plants are effective for infertility treatment. This study is therefore designed to provide a scientific backing for the use of these herbs for this purpose.
The dried plant sample were reduced to powdered form by mechanical grinder separately. Phytochemical screening was carried out on hot water extract of the plant samples according to standard methods. The mineral elements; Na and K were determined by flame photometry while Mg, Ca, Fe, Zn, Cu, Pb, Cd, and Ni were determined using Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer (AAS). Five hundred grams (500g) of each of the pulverized plant samples were extracted by maceration with methanol for three days. The anti-bacterial activities of the crude extracts were determined by agar disc diffusion method, and the acute toxicity tests of the plant crudes were determined. The crude extracts were investigated for any enhancement in the level of fertility hormones (estrogen, progesterone, follicle stimulating hormone (FSH), and leutinizing hormone (LH)) of female albino rats, using hormonal assay (ELIZA Method). Isolation was done using combination of chromatographic techniques while characterization of the compound was carried out using 1H, 13C, COSY, HMBC and HSQC NMR experiments.
The phytochemical screening revealed the presence of flavonoid, tannins, reducing sugar steroids, alkaloid, saponins and terpenoids which have therapeutic values to humans. The antibacterial activities studies showed that two of the selected plants have strong antibacterial activities against Pseudomonas aureginosa and Staphylococcus aureus as zones of inhibition for the organisms were 11mm and 14.5mm respectively for U.chamae and 16.5mm and 14mm respectively for C. filiformis. The mineral analysis revealed the concentration of the following mineral nutrients in mg/kg. Na 1.96, 6.09, 1211, and 18.7; K 2.09, 4.04, 1228, and 411.0; Ca 38.90, 49.2, 1829 and 187.2; Mg 13.61, 9.94, 924, and 80.4; P 44.90, 51.06, 3552, and 43.2; Fe 48.90, 84.13, 4448, and 37.4; Cu 0.10, 5.07, 28, and 11.2; Pb 0.08, 0.04, 03, and 6.22 for U.chamae, C. filiformis, B. petersianum and P. balsamifera respectively. The acute toxicity test revealed that the plants are not toxic except C. filiformis with low toxicity as their LD50 are 5000, 3854, 3854 and 2154 mg/kg body weight for Uvaria chamae, Prioria balsamifera, Biophytum petersianum and Cassytha filiformis respectively. The fertility bioassay revealed that Prioria balsamifera leaves caused a significant increase in the level of estrogen, leutinizing hormone, and follicle stimulating hormones. Characterization of the isolated bioactive compounds identified the compounds as 2-(3,4-dimethoxyphenyl)-5,7-dimethoxy-4H-chromen-4-one and 2-(3,4-dihydroxyphenyl)-3,5,7-trihydroxy-4H-chromen-4-one which have been suggested to have estrogenic effect and antioxidant activity respectively. Each of the selected plants enhanced one or more reproductive hormones and that validates their combination in traditional medicine to cure infertility.
