Therapeutic and fertility restoration effects of Ionidium suffruticosum on sub-fertile male albino Wistar rats: effects on testis and caudal spermatozoa.

CONTEXT: Ionidium suffruticosum (L.) Ging (Violaceae) is an important medicinal plant widely used as a herbal traditional medicine in Ayurveda for the treatment of infertility. Currently, little pharmacological information is available on its male fertility properties following prolonged use. OBJECTIVE: To investigate I. suffruticosum leaf extracts for male fertility parameters. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The ethanol lyophilized fraction was administered orally on carbendazim-induced sub-fertility rats (250 mg/kg body weight for 28 days). The effects of fractions on rat's fertility parameters i.e., body and testes weight, sperm motility, sperm vitality, epididymal sperm counts, its morphology, enzyme and antioxidant stress and histopathology were studied and compared with clomiphene citrate. RESULTS: The sub-fertile male rats treated with I. suffruticosum leaf extract increased the body weight of 7 g, testis weight of 97 mg, increased cauda epididymal sperm counts of 34.2 × 106 sperm/mL, motility of sperm 46% and vitality 28% also increased and normal sperm morphology also improved up to 32%. The carbendazim-treated group showed loss in body weight of 33 g, testis weight of 851 mg, decreased epididymal sperm counts of 15 × 106 sperm/mL, with sluggish motility and a highly significant fall in the live sperms of about 57%. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: The leaf fraction of I. suffructicosum increased the testicular weight, spermatogenesis, sperm counts, lessened sperm agglutination, and increased testicular oxidative biomarkers, SOD, and CAT. This study therefore supports the usage of I. suffructicosum in traditional medicine for infertility.

In vitro antimalarial activity of traditionally used Western Ghats plants from India and their interactions with chloroquine against chloroquine-resistant Plasmodium falciparum.

Malaria is a major global public health problem, and the alarming spread of drug resistance and limited number of effective drugs now available underline how important it is to discover new antimalarial compounds. An ethnopharmacological investigation was undertaken on Western Ghats plants traditionally used to treat malaria in India; 50 plants were very carefully selected from a total of 372 plants, and 200 extracts were prepared and tested for in vitro antiplasmodial activity alone and in combination with chloroquine (CQ) against CQ-resistant Plasmodium falciparum (strain MRC-Pf-43). In in vitro antiplasmodial activity, when plant extract alone is used, 29 extracts (or 14.5%) showed significant high in vitro antiplasmodial activity with IC(50) values ranging from 3.96 to 4.85 µg/ml, 53 extracts (or 26.5%) showed significant good in vitro antiplasmodial activity with IC(50) values ranging from 5.02 to 9.87 µg/ml, and 28 extracts (or 14%) showed significant moderate in vitro antiplasmodial activity with IC(50) values ranging from 10.87 to 14 µg/ml, respectively. In combination with CQ, 103 extracts (or 51.5%) showed significant synergistic in vitro antiplasmodial activities with synergistic factor values ranging from 1.03 to 1.92, and these activities were up to a fold higher with CQ, suggesting synergistic interactions of the two drugs. Our investigation has confirmed that above 62.1% of the plant extracts showed moderate to high in vitro antiplasmodial activity when used alone, and in combination with CQ, 55.7% of the extracts showed borderline to good synergistic activity.