Effect of ethanolic Neem (Azadirachta indica) leaf extract as an herb contraceptive on Hepato-somatic Index of the male mice (Mus musculus)

Neem Leaf (Azadirachta indica A. Juss) Ethanolic Extract on the Liver and Kidney Function of Rats

Neem (Azadirachta indica A. Juss) is one of the tropical plants found in Indonesia that has been used to prevent and treat various diseases. This study aimed to investigate the effect of the ethanol extract of neem leaves on the concentration of aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), urea, and creatinine in male rats. Twenty-four male Wistar rats were randomly divided into four groups (T0, T1, T2, and T3) with 6 rats in each group. T0 is the control group, and T1, T2, and T3 are the treatment groups that were administered 100, 200, and 300 mg/kg body weight of neem leaf ethanolic extracts for 48 days, respectively. On day 49, blood samples were collected to measure the concentration of AST, ALT, creatinine, and urea followed by an evaluation of liver and kidney histology. The results showed that the ethanolic extract of neem leaves did not affect the concentration of AST, ALT, and creatinine, The ethanol leaves reduced extract on the urea concentration, no abnormal changes were observed in the liver and kidney organs. In the future, it is required to carry out a comprehensive safety evaluation of the neem leaf ethanol extract for herbal medicines.

Rising trends towards the development of oral herbal male contraceptive: an insight review

Background

Acknowledging population control to be an essential step for global health promotes wide research study in the area of male contraception. Although there are a great number of synthetic contraceptives available in the market, they have plenty of adverse effects. Different potential strategies for male contraception were investigated over a long period time consisting of hormonal, chemical, and immunological interventions, although these methods showed good antifertility results with low failure rates relative to condoms.

Main text

This review is based upon the concept of herbal contraceptives which are an effective method for controlling the fertility of animals and humans. This review has highlighted herbal medicinal plants and plant extracts which have been reported to possess significant antifertility action in males. The review considers those plants which are used traditionally for their spermicidal and antispermatogenic activities and imbalance essential hormones for fertility purposes and plants with reported animal studies as well as some with human studies for antifertility effect along with their doses, chemical constituents, and mechanism of action of the antifertility effect of the plants. This review also explains the phases of sperm formation, hormone production, and the mechanism of male contraceptives.

Conclusion

As far as the relevance of the current review is discussed, it might be quite useful in generating monographs on plants and recommendations on their use. A lot of the plant species listed here might appear promising as effective alternative oral fertility-regulating agents in males. Therefore, significant research into the chemical and biological properties of such less-explored plants is still needed to determine their contraceptive efficacy and also to possibly define their toxic effects so that these ingredients can be utilized with confidence to regulate male fertility. The new inventions in this field are necessary to concentrate on modern, more potent drugs with less harmful content and that are self-administrable, less costly, and entirely reversible.

Coupled Oxides/LLDPE Composites for Textile Effluent Treatment: Effect of Neem and PVA Stabilization

The polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and neem extract were grafted onto coupled oxides (3ZT-CO) via reflux process to stabilize the particles to form 3ZT-CO/PVA and 3ZT-CO/Neem. These were then incorporated into LLDPE by melt blending process to give LLDPE/3ZT-CO/PVA and LLDPE/3ZT-CO/Neem composites. The Neem and PVA stabilized particles showed high zeta potential and dispersed homogeneously in water. The stabilization process altered the shape of the particles due to plane growth along the (002) polar direction. The stabilizers acted as capping agents and initiated the one-dimensional growth. The alkyl chain groups from PVA increased the polarity of the LLDPE/3ZT-CO/PVA and played a dominant role in the water adsorption process to activate the photocatalytic activity. This was further enhanced by the homogeneous distribution of the particles and low degree of crystallinity (20.87%) of the LLDPE composites. LLDPE/3ZT-CO/PVA exhibited the highest photodegradation (93.95%), which was better than the non-stabilized particles. Therefore, the photocatalytic activity of a polymer composite can be enhanced by grafting PVA and neem onto couple oxides. The LLDPE/3ZT-CO/PVA composite was further used to treat textile effluent. The results showed the composite was able to remove dye color by 93.95% and to reduce biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) and chemical oxygen demand (COD) by 99.99%.