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The acute toxicity study of the leaves of Sphenocentrum jollyanum (SJ) showed no toxicity when administered up to 11g/kg body weight orally while intra-peritoneal (IP) administration produced dose dependent mortality with median acute toxicity (LD 50 ) of 1445.4 mg/kg. In sub-chronic study, the extract administered for a period of 120 days showed no mortality or morbidity. There was significant weight gain in both treated and control groups while gross examination of internal organs revealed no detectable inflammation. The blood glucose and total cholesterol levels demonstrated dose dependent decrease while high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDLcholesterol) increased with dose. In the liver function test, there were no significant (p>0.05) changes in alanine amino transferase (ALT) and aspertate amino transferase (AST) in the extract treated animals. The renal function profile, serum creatinine and urea levels were not significantly altered compared to the control. In haematological evaluation, significant increase (p<0.05) in red blood cells (RBC), packed cell volume (PCV) and haemoglobin (Hb) were observed in the treated animals compared to the control while mean corpuscular (MCV), mean corpuscular haemoglobin (MCH), mean corpuscular haemoglobin concentration (MCHC) and white blood cells (WBC) showed no significant changes. The result therefore suggests that the leaves extract was potentially safe for consumption orally even at chronic administration.

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The present study explored the effect of virgin coconut oil on oxidative stress, testosterone and gonadotropic hormones in alcohol-induced testicular injury. Twenty-five male rats were randomly assigned to one of five groups (n=5). The oil was processed from the mature endosperm of coconut and administered at 6.7 ml/kg body weight, while alcohol was given orally at 7 ml/kg body weight. After sacrifice, testicular malondialdehyde and serum hormone levels were determined. Testicular malondialdehyde levels increased significantly in animals treated with alcohol alone (p < 0.001), and animals treated with alcohol following virgin coconut oil treatment (p < 0.05) while the other groups showed a significant decrease (p < 0.05) when compared with the control. However, when compared with the group treated with alcohol alone, all the other groups showed a significant decrease (p < 0.05) in testicular malondialdehyde level. Serum testosterone levels increased significantly (p < 0.05) in rats treated with virgin coconut oil when compared with the alcohol-only treated group, while serum FSH and LH levels were not significantly different from the control values in all the treatment groups. Virgin coconut oil effectively lowered alcohol-induced oxidative stress by reducing testicular malondialdehyde levels and ameliorated the deleterious effect of alcohol on serum testosterone level, but showed no effect on serum FSH and LH levels.