EVALUATION OF THE EFFECT OF ETHANOLIC EXTRACT OF THE AERIAL PARTS OF PHYLLANTHUS AMARUS

ABSTRACT

In the early 80’s and 90’s, spontaneous abortions took the lives of so many expectant women in company with the fetus. This brought about the initiative of getting foods, chemicals, drugs and materials to help protect these pregnancies until they are at full term. This condition has been managed clinically with orthodox drugs like atosiban (oxytocin receptor antagonist), salbutamol (β2- receptor agonist), nifedipine (calcium channel blocker) with marginal success hence necessitating the need for more effective remedy in medicinal plants. One of the plants used in ethno medicine to manage female reproductive challenges is Phyllanthus amarus (Euphorbiaceae) and this forms the basis of this study. Dried powdered material of the aerial parts of Phyllanthus amarus was extracted with absolute ethanol using Soxhlet apparatus, and concentrated to dryness under pressure with rotary evaporator. A specific weight (0.6g) of the extract was constituted into a stock solution of 200 mg/mL, from which appropriate dilutions were made for the evaluation of the effect(s) of the extract on isolated uterus of non-gravid female Wistar rats. These extracts exhibited good relaxation activity on spontaneous contractions of the uterus, on oxytocin induced contraction and on 80mMol KCl induced sustained contraction [ pilot study]. In a quest to discover the mechanism behind this activity, it proved to have a possibility of shutting voltage gated calcium channels which usually are responsible for influx of calcium ions into the intracellular space. Of which, these calcium ions are responsible for uterine contractions