Effects of intraperitoneal administration of khat extract in albino rats on uterine, vas deferens and phrenic diaphragm

ABSTRACT

The present study was conducted on normal adult albino rats of both sexes. Their body weight ranged between 200 and 250 gm and the experimental animals received 0.2 ml khat extract by intraperitoneal injection for 5 successive days. The mean height of uterine contractions in the pregnant and non-pregnant control groups were 3.48 +/- 1.244 cm and 1 +/- 0.28 cm respectively and were significantly reduced in the experimental pregnant and non-pregnant groups to 2.2 +/- 0.5 m and 0.33 +/- 0.15 cm respectively. The mean height of vas deferens contractions in the control group was 4.3 +/- 0.836 cm and was significantly reduced in the experimental group to 1.5 +/- 0.547 cm. In the control male group, the mean height of phrenic diaphragm contractions produced by direct and indirect stimulation were 5.8 +/- 0.5 cm and 3.7 +/- 0.8 cm respectively and were reduced significantly in the experimental group to 3.5 +/- 1.2 cm and to 1.4 +/- 0.4 cm. In the control female non-pregnant group the phrenic diaphragm contractions produced by direct and indirect stimulation were 4.8 +/- 0.8 cm and 2.9 +/- 0.5 cm respectively, and were reduced significantly in the experimental group to 3 +/- 1.2 cm and to 1.2 +/- 0.2 cm. In the control pregnant group, the phrenic diaphragm contractions produced by direct and indirect stimulation were 4 +/- 0.6 cm and 2.4 +/- 0.4 cm respectively and were significantly reduced in the experimental group to 1.2 +/- 0.2 cm and to 0.8 +/- 0.3 cm. The results were discussed