Histological Effects of Chronic Administration of Aqueous extract of Phyllanthus amarus on the Medial Geniculate Body of Adult Wistar Rats

Abstract

Effects of chronic administration of Phyllanthus amarus commonly used for the treatment of jaundice, diarrhea, dysentery, urogenital disease and wound on the medial geniculate body of adult Wistar rats was carefully studied. Rats of both sexes (n = 24), with average weight of 200g were randomly assigned into two treatment groups (A and B) and control group (C) of 8 rats each. The rats in the treatment groups (A and B) received 400mg and 800mg of aqueous extract of Phyllanthus amarus per kg body weight respectively through orogastric tube administration daily for thirty days. The control group received equal volume of distilled water daily for thirty days through the same route. The rats were fed with growers mash obtained from Edo Feeds and Flour mill Limited, Ewu, Edo State, Nigeria and given water liberally. The rats were sacrificed by cervical dislocation on the thirty-one days of the experiment. The medial geniculate body was carefully dissected out and quickly fixed in 10% formal saline for further routine histological study. The findings indicated that rats in the treated groups (A&B) showed some necrotic and cellular degenerative changes such as sparse cellular population, hypertrophy, and vacuolations in the stroma of the medial geniculate body as compared to the control group with that of group B more marked. Chronic administration of Phyllanthus amarus may therefore have an adverse effect on the auditory sensibilities by affecting the microanatomy of the medial geniculate body of adult Wistar rats.