Biological effects of essential oils and extracts
M. Karami; F. Ghassemi
Abstract
This study aimed to investigate the effects of aqueous-alcoholic extract of Ducrosia anethifolia (DC.) Boiss. leaves on the fetal heart tissue changes in the diabetic rats. Forty-eight female rats weighing 200-220 g were fertilized with eight male rats weighing 230-250 g. After ensuring the pregnancy, ...
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This study aimed to investigate the effects of aqueous-alcoholic extract of Ducrosia anethifolia (DC.) Boiss. leaves on the fetal heart tissue changes in the diabetic rats. Forty-eight female rats weighing 200-220 g were fertilized with eight male rats weighing 230-250 g. After ensuring the pregnancy, the females became diabetic by intraperitoneal injection of streptozotocin (80 mg kg-1 body weight) on the first day of pregnancy, and were randomly grouped. Groups included Control (healthy rats without treatment), Sham 1 (healthy rats receiving 1 ml D. anethifolia extract), Sham 2 (diabetic rats without treatment), and three groups of treatments which respectively received 1 ml D. anethifolia extract at the doses of 250, 500, and 1000 kg kg-1 body weight of the diabetic rats from 6th to 20th day of the pregnancy by gavage. On the 20th day of pregnancy, after anesthetizing the rats and taking 2 ml of blood from their hearts, the fetuses were removed from their uterus. The fetal hearts were isolated and fixed in the 5% solution of formalin. After the tissue processing, the five-micron sections were prepared by the stereological method and stained with hematoxylin and eosin. The heart circumference and its wall thickness were measured by the image analysis software, and the number of heart cells was counted by the Grids-stero lite software. The data were analyzed by the ANOVA and the means were compared by the Tukey test (p < /em>≤0.05). The findings showed an increase in the blood glucose, density and length of cardiocytes, and heart circumference in all the diabetic groups compared to the control, which were significantly reduced in the diabetic rats treated with D. anethifolia extract compared to the diabetic group without treatment. According to the results, the aqueous-alcoholic extract of D. anethifolia leaves could slightly compensate the destructive changes caused by diabetes in the fetal cardiovascular tissue by reducing the blood glucose in the diabetic rats.
R. Ghalandari; F. Ghassemi; H. Kargar Jahromi; N. Gholamzadeh
Abstract
Black seeds (Nigella Sativa L.) is a medicinal plant that has long been used in the treatment of many diseases as sexual dysfunction. The present study was conducted to investigate effects of this plant on ovarian tissue structure. In this research, 35 adult female Wister rats weighing 250-300 g were ...
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Black seeds (Nigella Sativa L.) is a medicinal plant that has long been used in the treatment of many diseases as sexual dysfunction. The present study was conducted to investigate effects of this plant on ovarian tissue structure. In this research, 35 adult female Wister rats weighing 250-300 g were divided into five equal groups as follow: control group (without treatment), a sham solution of water and alcohol, and 3 treatment groups. The hydroalcoholic extract of black seeds was prepared in low, middle and high doses (100, 200 and 400 mg/kg/b.wt), respectively, and they were injected intraperitoneally in three treatment groups daily for three weeks. At the end of treatment period, the ovaries were dissected, and tissue sections (5μm) were prepared after dehydration, clearing and paraffin embedding. Follicular types were counted and histological changes were studied by light microscope. Data were analyzed by SPSS (17), and the study groups were compared by t-test (P<0.05). The results showed significant decrease in the number of primordial and primary follicles in all treatment groups as compared with control group (P<0.05). Also, the number of secondary follicle and ovarian weight in treatment with the maximum dose (4oo mg/kg/b.wt) decreased significantly as compared with control group. According to the results, hydroalcoholic extract of black seeds showed somewhat destructive dose-dependent effects on ovarian tissue and its use should be avoided during pregnancy.
