background: the abortifacient claim of senna alata (s. alata) was scientifically validated recently with alkaloids speculated to be the bioactive agent. this speculation is yet to be substantiated or refuted by scientific evidence. the present study was aimed to investigate the pregnancy terminating effects of the alkaloids from s. alata leaves. methods: twenty four pregnant rats (143.99±1.21 g...

Locoweed species—Astragalus and Oxytropis spp. that contain the indolizidine alkaloid swainsonine— are widely distributed on rangelands in North and South America, Mexico, China, and other rangelands throughout the world. Other range plant species including Sida spp. (Seitz et al. 2005), Ipomoea spp. (Damir et al. 1987), and Swainsona spp. (Laws and Anson 1968) from Brazil, Africa, and Australi...

The recent expansion of Nicotine Replacement Therapy to pregnant women and children ignores the fact that nicotine impairs, disrupts, duplicates and/or interacts with essential physiological functions and is involved in tobacco-related carcinogenesis. The main concerns in the present context are its fetotoxicity and neuroteratogenicity that can cause cognitive, affective and behavioral disorder...

A combined dominant lethal-fertility study was conducted in which male and female Sprague-Dawley (CD) rats were exposed to 0, 30, 100 or 300 ppm of ethylene glycol monomethyl ether (EGME) vapor for 6 hr/day, 5 days/week for 13 weeks and then mated to untreated counterparts. Among males, fertility was completely suppressed after exposure to 300 ppm. A partial restoration of reproductive function...

Mechanical valve thrombosis is a feared complication in pregnant women with mechanical heart valves (MHV). It associated high maternal and foetal morbidity mortality. Optimal anticoagulation strategies for MHV remain controversial. Vitamin K antagonists (VKA) are the most effective treatment regimen to prevent therefore considered safest mother. However, VKAs increase risk of embryopathy, foeto...

Mercury vapor is known penetrate the placental barrier more easily than inorganic mercury. A relative amount of mercury accumulates in the fetus after exposure of pregnant animals to mercury vapor. Mercury concentration in fetal organs is much lower than that in maternal organs except the liver, and fetal liver shows significantly higher mercury concentrations than maternal liver. In fetal live...

The recent expansion of Nicotine Replacement Therapy to pregnant women and children ignores the fact that nicotine impairs, disrupts, duplicates and/or interacts with essential physiological functions and is involved in tobacco-related carcinogenesis. The main concerns in the present context are its fetotoxicity and neuroteratogenicity that can cause cognitive, affective and behavioral disorder...

Ten years after an incident following which 79 workers developed chloracne due to exposure to tetrachlorodibenzodioxin a study was undertaken to establish the current state of health of the affected employees remaining in the company's (Coalite Oils and Chemicals Ltd, a subsidiary company of Coalite Group Ltd) employment. The opportunity was used to examine effects on mortality, morbidity, carc...

Inbred normal adult SWR/J mice were used to evaluate the toxic and teratogenic shortand long term effects of various dose levels (0.9, 1.8, 3.0, 9.0, 45.0, which represent 1/100, 1/50, 1/30, 1/10, 1/2 LD50, respectively) of azadirachtin of neemix-4.5 ( insecticide product )on fetuses and pups of pregnant females. The oral administration of the different dose levels of azadirachtin on days 7-12 ...