YORUBA TRADITIONAL RELIGION SITE
Herbal cures for hypertension, low sperm count, others unveiled.
Guardian. Lagos. Nigeria. 25.5.12
University of Lagos researchers have unveiled local plants used for treating hypertension, dysentery, low sperm count and weak erection, coated tongue, pile, menstrual disorder, vaginal discharge and fevers. CHUKWUMA MUANYA writes.
AN ETHNO-BOTANICAL survey of three largest herbal markets and medicinal plants used for treating ailments in Lagos State of Nigeria has unveiled herbal cures for hypertension, dysentery, low sperm count and weak erection, coated tongue, pile, menstrual disorder, leucorrhoea and fevers.
The study titled “An Ethnobotanical Survey of Herbal Markets and Medicinal Plants in Lagos State of Nigeria” was published in Ethnobotanical Leaflets.
The researchers from the Department of Botany and Microbiology, University of Lagos, led by Prof. Dele Olowokudejo, by means of oral and written questionnaire identified herbal cures used for treating ailments in Lagos State.
According to the study, herbal cures for hypertension include: leaves of Persea Americana (avocado) are made into shreds, dried and taken as infusion; leaves of Senecio biafrae (worowo in Yoruba or Sierra Leone bologna) added to fermented seeds of Parkia biglobosa (dawadawa in Hausa, African locust beans in English, Igba/Iyere in Yoruba, and Nere in Bambara) are used to prepare soup which is eaten; leaves of Talinum triangulare (water leaf) or Basella alba (Indian spinach in English, Amunututu in Yoruba) may also be used; and kola nut’s mistletoe mixed with honey is also effective.
For dysentery the researchers noted: decoction of the leaves of Grewia flavescence (Itakun okeere) is made and drunk; and leaves of Parquentina nigrescens (kwankwanin in Hausa, mgbidim gbe in Igbo, ewidun or inuwu elepe in Yoruba), Jatropha gossypifolia (pignut or fignut, and Lapalapa in Yoruba), Pergularia daemia (Utazi in Ibo, teji in Yoruba), Ocimum gratissimum (scent leaf in English, Nchuanwu in Ibo, Effirin in Yoruba) and Momordica charantia (African cucumber or balsam pear in English, daddagu in Hausa, akban ndene in Ibo, akara aj in Yoruba) are all powdered together and taken with cold pap, or as decoction.
For low sperm count and weak erection, the researchers noted: Powdered Piper guineensis (Climbing black pepper or Benin pepper, ebe-ahinhi akpoke in Edo, etinkene or odusa in Efik/Ibibio, uziza in Ibo, uririe in Urhobo, iyere or ata-iyere in Yoruba) and extract from 10 big onions are poured into honey and boiled between five to 10 minutes. A cup to be taken in the morning and at night.
Fruit Drinks Can Be As Acidic As Vinegar.
Leadership. Abuja. Nigeria. 24.5.12
Dentists have issued a warning about popular fruit drinks and smoothies after it emerged some can be as acidic as vinegar.
Fruity drinks are commonly given to children by well-meaning parents to ensure they get their ‘five a day’.
But an investigation found many contained a high acid level which can erode tooth enamel.
The warning came as official figures revealed dental problems were the third most common reason for child hospital admissions last year.
A This Water drink with lemons and limes had a pH level of 2.7 – more acidic than vinegar, at 2.9.
This is at the upper end of the acidity scale in which 7 is neutral and 1 is extremely high.
Tooth enamel begins to be destroyed higher than level 5.5 on the scale.
Other drinks tested – including Tropicana orange juice, Copella apple juice and Innocent smoothies – all had acid levels ranging between 3.3 and 3.8. The most acidic was Coca-Cola, with a pH level of 2.5.
Dr Kathy Harley, dean of the dental faculty at the Royal College of Surgeons, said many parents are unaware that the combination of high acid and sugar can destroy young teeth.
She warned last year that 50 per cent of five-year-olds have signs of damage to their tooth enamel caused by excess acid in their diet.
Manufacturers are not required to publish the acid levels in drinks.
Department of Health figures show dental problems were the third most common reason for children to be admitted to hospital in England in 2011-12 – beaten only by viral infections and disorders related to premature birth.
Government advice states that everyone should have five portions of fruit and vegetables a day, with 150ml of fruit juice counting as one portion.
Dr Harley said it would be better if children met the target by eating fruit with meals and for juice to be a ‘once a week treat’.
Dentists also advise drinking water after having juice to wash away some of the acid.
This Water said its products were “not meant for children’, adding, “The recipe in question is made with fresh lemon and lime juice so it is going to have a natural acidity.”
Dentists said that rather than consuming fruit or fruit juices as a snack, they were better consumed at meal times or accompanied with something containing calcium, such as cheese, which neutralises acid.
Children should be encouraged to drink water afterwards to wash away some of the acid, but not to brush their teeth until at least an hour afterwards, as teeth are weakened by exposure to acid, they said.
In 2008 Innocent Drinks, now majority owned by Coca Cola, had an advertisement campaign in which its products were billed as “Simple, natural refreshment’ banned by the Advertising Standards Authority for failing to inform consumers about the sugar content of its juice drinks.
A spokesman for This Water drinks said the products were “not meant for children and are not marketed as such.”
–Daily Mail, London
Alligator pepper reduces weight gain in pregnancy .
Guardian. Lagos. Nigeria. 20.5.12
Eating Alligator pepper in pregnancy can reduce the risk of pre-eclampsia but may induce abortion in the first three months if ingested in high doses. CHUKWUMA MUANYA writes.
NIGERIAN researchers have found that intra-peritoneal injection of low doses of aqueous extract of Alligator pepper causes reduction in gestational weight gain, but when ingested in high doses may result to discontinuation of first trimester pregnancies in rats. The first study in Nigerian Journal of Physiological Sciences suggested that the active component of aqueous extract of Alligator pepper be determined. Blood pressure measurements may be included in further studies on the gestational weight gain reduction in order to determine the possible use of aqueous extract of alligator pepper in the prevention of pre-eclampsia in pregnant women.
Pre-eclampsia or preeclampsia is a medical condition in which hypertension arises in pregnancy (pregnancy-induced hypertension) in association with significant amounts of protein in the urine.
Until now, several studies on gestational weight gain and pregnancy outcome in obese glucose tolerant women have shown that birth weight increased significantly with increasing weight gain, which was associated with significantly higher rates of hypertension, caesarean section, induction of labour and large for gestational age infants.
Medical experts suggest that minimal gestational weight gain might normalize birth weight. However, weight gain reduction in pregnancy has been used by some medical doctors in an attempt to reduce pregnancy complications and improve maternal and fetal outcome with controversial results, largely due to low birth weight.
Further studies showed that pregnancy weight gain within the Institute of Medicine’s (IOM) recommended range of 9 to 12 kilogramme was associated with the best outcome for both mothers and infants.
However, it has been shown that weight gain in most pregnant women is not within the IOM’s range, perhaps due to the difficulty of calculating the exact quantity, timing and duration of dietary restriction in individual patients that would bring their gestational weight gain within the normal range.
The study is tiled: “Effect of aqueous extract of alligator pepper (zingiberaceae aframomum melegueta) on gestational weight gain.”
The researchers from Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma, Edo State, found that Alligator pepper has over 27 constituents, which are mainly humulene, caryophyllene and the oxides of these derivatives.
They wrote: “There was a significant reduction in gestational weight-gain of the rats (P<0.05) in the experimental groups, when compared to that in the control group irrespective of the dose that was used. The average weight gain in human pregnancy is about 12.5 Kg. The gestational weight gain in rats was 175-200g in the control group and 50-75g in the experimental groups.
“The weight gain is not only due to the products of conception but also increased water, lipid and protein retention. This was the case in this experiment as the weight gain was in excess of the total birth weight of litters in the control group. Reduction in gestational weight gain, in the experimental group, could have been due to the loss of appetite that followed the intra-peritoneal injection, or a diuretic effect of the caryophyllene component of Alligator pepper.
“It should also be noted that the rats, which had 2mg of aqueous extract of Alligator pepper had the highest mean number of offsprings (11) with mean birth weight of 4.55g. However, the birth weights of babies in multiple gestation are usually lower than those in singleton pregnancies.
“Weight gain in excess of 0.75 kg per week may be predictive of pre-eclampsia. Blood pressure measurement was beyond the scope of this study. Diagnosis of pre-eclampsia is based on elevation of blood pressure and proteinuria. Since gestational weight gain above 12 kg is related to higher rates of adverse maternal and fetal outcome, and dietary restriction during pregnancy has led to a slightly increased rate of perinatal mortality, it is suggested that further research, if ethically permissible, should be done to determine if gestational weight gain could be reduced to the acceptable IOM’s range, using individualized doses of the aqueous extract of Alligator pepper.”
However, the Ambrose Alli University researchers in another study published in Nigerian Journal of Physiological Sciences concluded that when ingested in high doses, alligator pepper causes discontinuation of first trimester pregnancies in rats.
“It will be unethical to carry out this experiment in human subjects. However, women in the reproductive age group might need to avoid eating Alligator pepper if they are desirous of childbirth or are in their first trimester of pregnancy,” they wrote.
The study is titled: “Effect of alligator pepper (Zingiberaceae Aframomum Melegueta) on first trimester pregnancy in Sprague Dawley Rats.”
The study reads: “The experiment was carried out to determine the health risk or benefit of Alligator pepper to pregnant women if any. Fifteen male rats and 15 female rats of proven fertility from a pilot study were randomly paired in 15 cages in a well-ventilated room. After three days of mating, the males were withdrawn from the females, which were allowed to stay in their separate maternity cages for 18 to 25 days. The females in the control group were fed with normal rat chow and clean drinking water ad libitum for the duration of the experiment.
“Each of the rats in the experimental group was served 20 g of rat chow mixed with 50mg of Alligator pepper for one day only and thereafter fed with normal rat chow and clean drinking water ad libitum for 18-25 days. The rats in the control group had a mean of 7 litters each, while the rats in the experimental group did not litter at all. It was concluded that ingestion of large quantities of Alligator pepper poses a health risk to women in their first trimester of pregnancy.”
Results obtained from the investigation; depicted by the absence of litters by the female rats in the experimental group, their significant weight loss compared to the controls and the presence of copious blood stained vaginal discharge, contradict the usual fluid retention and weight gain during pregnancy.
The researchers said this could imply that the ingestion of alligator pepper by rats in the present experiment does not keep or nurture pregnancy as evidenced by the fact that none of the affected experimental rats littered even one offspring.
The researchers added: “The dose of granulated Alligator pepper was decided on because the rats tolerated the lower doses of extract of Alligator pepper used in a previous experiment on the effect of aqueous extract of Alligator pepper on Gestational weight gain’.
“Previous reports have shown that ingestion of 350mg of whole seed Alligator pepper (5-7mg/Kg body weight) caused diplopia and blurred vision in healthy Igbo men. However, apart from the initial loss of appetite, none of the seven rats, which ingested 50mg of Alligator pepper (286-345mg/Kg body weight) had serious side effects apart from the discontinuaton of pregnancy.”
