of incubation at 37C, the medium was discarded and replaced with 100 L of DMSO.The OD 570 was determined with a microplate reader (CLARIO Star Microplate reader, BMG Labtech, UK) and each experiment was repeated three times with five replicates in each experiment. The OD 570 obtained for the controls cells (no extract) was arbitrarily set at 100% and the OD 570 value for cells treated with extracts were expressed as a percentage of this control. The IC 50 values were calculated using

The management of diabetes mellitus (DM) targets glycemic control as well as prevention or reversal of other complications associated with the metabolic disorder. One of such complications is the infertility which has been traced to oxidative stress and DNA damage caused by DM. In this study, experimentally-induced diabetic male Wistar rats were fed with Xanthosoma sagittifolium (cocoyam) for 14 days and its effect on sperm morphology and characteristics, as well as histology of the testes were assessed. X. sagittifolium corm feed (Xs) were reconstituted with commercial rat feed to contain 25, 50, 75 or 100% X. sagittifolium on a weight/weight basis. One primary and 7 secondary cell abnormalities were observed with overall increased total abnormal sperm cells in the diabetic rats. Sperm cell motility was significantly (p<0.05) reduced in all diabetic rats, but diabetic rats fed with Xs showed increased motility and liveability. Sperm volume was unchanged, but the depressed sperm count in the untreated diabetic rats was increased in Xs-fed rats. Histology of Xs-fed diabetic rats showed reduction in seminiferous tubule diameter and luminal diameter which was significantly enlarged in untreated diabetic rats. X. sagittifolium significantly (p<0.05) prevented further deterioration of sperm cell quality and reversed cell apoptosis as presented by increased sperm motility, liveability and count. In the overall, the chances of fertilization by sperm cells from diabetic patients will be increased as well as achievement of good glycemic control and prevention of further damage by the disease condition.

Objectives Several cultivars of Allium cepa L. have been studied for anti-inflammatory and analgesic activities but there is inadequate information on such biological activities of the concentrated extracts of the Nigerian grown red cultivar A. cepa bulb. Methods The anti-inflammatory models used in this study were Carrageenan-induced paw oedema and formalin-induced paw lick in rats, while acetic acid-induced abdominal writhing, hot plate reaction, hot water tail flick tests in mice were the analgesic models. Results At 30 min post-induction (pi), the inhibition of paw oedema (62.50%) by 200 mg/kg of methanol extract of red cultivar A. cepa bulb (MERCACB) was significantly (p<0.001) higher than that of indomethacin (15.63%) at 10 mg/kg. The paw oedema inhibition at 60 min pi by MERCACB (76.92%) was significantly higher than that of indomethacin (41.03%). At the early phase of formalin paw-lick test, the pain reaction time (PRT) of rat treated with MERCACB (400 mg/kg) was significantly lower than that of indomethacin and the control groups. The hotplate test revealed that PRT of mice treated with 800 mg/kg of MERCACB were significantly (p<0.01) longer in comparism to indomethacin and control groups. The PRT of mice subjected to thermal pain due to hot water and treated with 800 mg/kg of MERCACB was significantly (p<0.05) longer than that of the control group. Conclusions These findings indicate that MERCACB possesses potent anti-inflammatory and analgesic properties which confirm the traditional use of the plant for the treatment of inflammatory diseases and may be useful as a future therapeutic agent.

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