ABSTRACT
Medicinal plants are the primary source of medicines and main ingredients used by traditional medicine practitioners. Byrsocarpus coccineus Schum and Thonn is one of such plants that have been used in Africa to treat different ailments including augmentation of labour. The aim of this study is to determine the acute toxicity and to screen the in vivo uterotonic effects of the ethylacetate leaf extract of Byrsocarpus coccineus in pregnant rat uterus. Leaves of the Byrsocarpus coccineus were collected, air dried, pounded and extracted using ethanol, ethylacetate, N-butanol and water. The extracts obtained were then used for the acute toxicity study, while the ethylacetate extract was used to assess the in vivo activity in pregnant rat uterus. Ethylacetate and aqueous leaf extracts Byrsocarpus coccineus was found to be relatively non toxic, whereas N-butanol was found to be toxic in rats and mice. Ethanol leaf extract was found to be only relatively toxic in mice. Ethylacetate leaf extract of Byrsocarpus coccineus potentiated the delivery of pregnant rats on days 21 of pregnancy. The results of the abortificient effect of the ethyl acetate extract on the pregnant rats showed no significant difference between the treatment groups compared with the control (p>0.05). There was a significant increase in haemoglobin, white blood cell, platelets and aspartate aminotransferase (p<0.05). Ethylacetate leaf extract of Byrsocarpus coccineus is relatively safe and was found to potentiate the delivery of pregnant rats with no significant change in hepatic and renal functions and this supports the traditional use of this plant to induce labour at terms.
ABSTRACT
Starch is the commonest disintegrant used in tablet formulation. Modified starches, also called starch derivatives, are prepared by physically, enzymatically or chemically treating native starch, thereby changing the properties of the starch. The aim of the study was to investigate the disintegrant property of Pregelatinized and Phosphate modified sweet potato starches in comparison with the native sweet potato starch and maize starch BP in paracetamol tablet formulation.Pregelatinized starch was prepared by drying 8% (w/v) sweet potato starch mucilage whilestarch phosphate was prepared by phosphorylation of sweet potato starch with monosodium phosphate dehydrate solution. The starches were evaluated for moisture content, swelling capacity, hydration capacity and flow properties while the tablet were assessed for disintegration time and dissolution rate using standard methods. Results obtained showed 82.22% yield of Pregelatinized starch and 83.33% of starch phosphate. The modified starches showed hydration capacities of 2.36 and 2.05 and swelling capacities of 6.25 and 4.48 respectively for PGS and SP, values that doubled those produced by unmodified sweet potato starch and maize starch B.P. The tablets formulated using 5.0%w/w concentrations of phosphate starch, pregelatinized starch, unmodified sweet potato starch and maize starch BP as disintegrant, respectively, disintegrated at 0.53min, 0.82min, 1.06min and 1.26min. Phosphate starch and Pregelatinized starch derived from sweet potato displayed superior disintegration properties than the unmodified starch and maize starch B.P.