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Plants and plant-derived products have a long history in the treatment of sexual disorders. Rauvolfia vomitoria is one of such plant used traditionally for the enhancement of male sexual and reproductive activity. This study was carried out to elucidate the potential activity of R. vomitoria ethanolic extract on sexual behaviour and male reproductive function. Twenty-five male rats were assigned to five groups and orally treated with distilled water (control), sildenafil citrate (standard) and R. vomitoria ethanolic extract (50, 100 and 200 mg/kg BW) for 22 days. Sexual behaviour parameters such as mount latency (ML), intromission latency (IL), ejaculation latency (EL), mount frequency (MF), intromission frequency (IF), ejaculation frequency (IF) and post-ejaculatory interval (PEI) were recorded at day 0, 1, 8, 15 and 22. The reproductive function including reproductive organ weights, testicular histology and sperm parameters was also assessed. Results showed enhancement in sexual behaviour through significant reduction (p < .01) in ML, IL and PEI and significant increase (p < .01) in EL, MF IF and EF. The extract also caused an increase in sperm count, motility and transit. Present findings demonstrate the ability of R. vomitoria ethanolic extract to improve male sexual behaviour and reproductive activity in rats.

Turraeanthus africanus (Meliacaeae) is known to possess a broad spectrum of pharmacological, medicinal and therapeutic properties. However, no extensive safety studies have been conducted on these extracts to date. The aim of this study was to evaluate toxicity of the aqueous extract of Turraeanthus africanus (Meliacaeae) after oral and intraperitoneal administration in mice. The acute toxicity was evaluated after single daily administration of the aqueous extract orally at doses of 0, 5, 10, 15, 20, 30 g kg ―1 or by the intraperitoneal route at doses of 0, 3, 6, 9, 12 g kg ―1 of raw material. The subacute toxicity was evaluated only by the intraperitoneal route for 6 weeks at doses of 1.5, 3, 6 g kg ―1 of raw material. Oral doses up to 30 g kg ―1 of the aqueous extract of Turraeanthus africanus (TA) did not produce mortality or significant changes in the general behaviour and gross appearance of internal organs of rats. However, the intraperitoneal administration of the aqueous extract of Turraeanthus africanus caused dose-dependent lethal effects. The acute intraperitoneal toxicity (LD 50 ) of TA extract in mice was 7.2 g kg ―1 . In subacute toxicity in mice, after the intraperitoneal administration of TA extract for 6 consecutive weeks, the feed consumption was significantly affected at the dose 3 g kg ―1 with P < 0.05 and at the dose 6 g kg ―1 with P < 0.001 and consequently had significant effect with P < 0.05 in body weight of animals. Level of triglyceride of treated animals lowered at dose 1.5 g kg ―1 with P < 0.001 and at dose 3 g kg ―1 and 6 g kg ―1 with P < 0.05. Total cholesterol level of treated animals lowered at dose 1.5 g kg ―1 with P < 0.005 and at dose 3 and 6 g kg ―1 with P < 0.001. HDL cholesterol level of treated animals lowered up to dose 6 g kg ―1 with P < 0.05 while levels of LDL cholesterol, serum and tissue creatinine of treated animals lowered at dose 3 g kg ―1 and dose 6 g kg ―1 with P < 0.05. Serum protein level of treated animal enhanced at dose 1.5 g kg ―1 and at dose 6 g kg ―1 with P < 0.05 while tissue creatinine level of treated animal enhanced with P < 0.001. The histology of liver, kidney and lung of the treated mice indicated morphological change of these organs (data not shown). No significant difference was observed during treatment concerning the haematological parameters. The results suggest that the plant is not toxic through the oral route in mice and that parenteral administration should be avoided.