Rauvolfia vomitoria and Gongronema latifolium stimulate cortical cell proliferations

Rauwolfiavomitoria Root Bark Extract Affects the Cervical Ventral Horn Cells of the Spinal Cord

“…Hypertrophy, which is the enlargement of cells and its organelles usually arise as compensation reaction to trauma of the tissue. [27] R. vomitoria have been reported to cause such trauma in different body tissues, [3,[17][18][19][20][21][22] indicating that it may also affect spinal cervical ventral horn cells as in the present study. The non-prominent glia cells may be due to cell division changes, which may have inhibited their staining ability.…”

“…These behavioural and morphological changes are the visible signs of R. vomitoria toxicity as previously reported. [3,[17][18][19][20][21][22].Histologically, there was slight hypertrophy of the neurons with less distinct glial cells in the spinal cervical ventral horn, and no difference (p > 0.05) in cell population in the 200 mg/kg R. vomitoria group compared with the control. Hypertrophy, which is the enlargement of cells and its organelles usually arise as compensation reaction to trauma of the tissue.…”

“…This is because R. vomitoria stimulates gliosis. [10,[17][18][19][20][21][22] In the 300 mg/kg R. vomitoria group, there was hypertrophy of the neurons and hyperplasia of the glia cells with pyknotic appearance of some of the nuclei in the spinal cervical ventral horn, and no difference (p > 0.05) in cell population compared with the control. This result is similar to that of the 200 mg/kg R. vomitoria group and more probably due to the higher dosage.…”

“…[30] R. vomitoria has been reported to cause loss of cellular integrity of the cerebral cortex, cerebellum and olfactory bulb in animal models and, hypertrophy and hyperplasia of osteoblasts, which supports the present results. [3,10,[17][18][19][20][21][22]31] Conclusion R. vomitoria alter behavioural and cellular architecture of the spinal ventral horn C3-C5 segments and these changes were dose dependent.…”

“…[14,15] However, despite these various health benefits, some side effects such as drowsiness, nasal congestion, paradoxical anxiety, depression and Parkinson-like symptoms have been reported. [6,12,16] Histological alteration in different brain areas have been reported, [3,[17][18][19][20][21][22] Also, overdose may cause respiratory depression, slowed heartbeat, hypotension, confusion, tremors, convulsions and gastro-intestinal distress. [16] One pathway by which these tremors and convulsion become evident is through the spinal cord.…”