Joshua Izuchukwu Abugu¹*, Udodi Princewill Sopuluchukwu¹ and Oladosu Olajumoke Blessing²

¹Department of Anatomy, Faculty of Basic Medical Sciences, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Nnewi Campus, Anambra State, Nigeria
²Department of Anatomy, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Federal University of Technology, Akure, Nigeria

*Corresponding Author: Joshua Izuchukwu Abugu, Department of Anatomy, Faculty of Basic Medical Sciences, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Nnewi Campus, Anambra State, Nigeria.

Received: December 02, 2022; Published:December 19, 2022

Abstract

Calabash chalk is a naturally occurring minerals, predominantly consumed by pregnant women for its antiemetic effects, it is prepared from clay and mud made up of lead, arsenic, sand and wood ash. This study was aimed at establishing the effect of Calabash chalk on the wall of the uterine body. Sixteen Adult female wistar rats weighing between 150-200g were assigned into four groups. Group A animals served as the control and received food and distilled water only, while group B, C and D served as experimental groups that received 1000 mg/kg, 2000 mg/kg and 3000 mg/kg of aqueous extract of calabash chalk respectively. The extract administration lasted for 28days. On day 29 the animals were anaesthesized using chloroform vapour and were sacrificed. The blood was aspirated by cardiac puncture for hormonal Analysis and uterus were harvested, weighed and fixed in 10% buffered formalin for histological examination. Data was Analysed using SPSS version 25. Results from this present study showed a significant increase in Body weight of group C (P = 0.028), while Group B (p = 0.192) and group D (p = 0.065), showed a non significant decrease, when compared to group A. It was also noticed that there was a non significant increase in relative uterine weight of Groups B (P = 0.828) and C (P = 0.828) when compared to group A, while Group D (P = 0.004) showed a significant increase. The study also present that there was a non significant decrease in Estrogen level in groups B, C and D when compared to Group A, Progesterone results showed a significant decrease in groups B,C and D when compared to group A. Histological findings showed a mild, moderate to severe damage to the walls of the uterine cavity in groups B,C and D respectively when compared to the control group. This could account for certain levels of miscarriage experienced among pregnant women due to poor implantation of the foetus on the uterine wall, further investigation should be carried out on the incidence of miscarriage among pregnant women that consumes Calabash chalk, to establish the etiology of miscarriage, suggested by this scientific investigation.

Keyword: Uterus; Calabash Chalk; Wistar Rats; Miscarriage; Lead

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Citation

Citation: Joshua Izuchukwu Abugu. “Effect of Calabash Chalk on the Walls Of the Uterine Body (Corpus Uteri) of Adult Female Wistar Rat". Acta Scientific Anatomy 2.1 (2023): 03-24.

Copyright

Copyright: © 2022 Joshua Izuchukwu Abugu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.