Mental and Growth Retardation following Prenatal Exposure to Oral Bitter Leaf (Vernonia amygdalina) Extract in Developing Wistar Rats

Abstract

Objective: The teratogenic influence of maternal exposure to bitter leaf on the morphology of foetal nervoussystem was studied. Methodology: In this study, we used twenty five pristine female Wistar rats of an average weight of 215g.The rats were distributed into 5 groups with each having 5 rats. A separate cage was used to keep each group.Overnight, the females were kept with sexually active male of the same species. The following morning,Vagina smears was done on the female to confirm coitus, the presence of tailed structures in the smears wastaken as sperm positive day and was taken as day zero of pregnancy. 400mg/kg of bitter leaf were administeredorally between gestational days 1-7 (group B), 8-14 (group C), 15-21 (group D) and 1-21 (group E). Thecontrol (group A) was administered 2.0ml/kg/bw of normal saline throughout pregnancy. After parturition,the brain and body weights of the litters were recorded on postnatal days 1, 7, 14, 21, 28 and 35. Results: Results show that the litters of the group C and E demonstrated significant (p < 0.05) reduction inall parameters measured when compared to the control and the group B and D. The foetal weight and brainweight decreased significantly (p <0.05) when compared with the corresponding values in the control group.The body to brain ratios of group C and E also show variation when compared to the control. Conclusion: Our results suggest that administration of bitter leaf during the second week of pregnancy mayretard growth of the body and brain in Wistar rats.

Keywords

• cerebral cortex
• brain weight
• body weight
• wistar rats