Histostereological Restorative and Inhibitory Effects of Crude Methanolic Bark Extract of Prunus Africanus on Testosterone-Induced Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia in Wistar Rats

Aim: To evaluate the histostereological effects of P. africanus on testosterone induced Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia (BPH) in Wistar rats.

Place and Duration of Study: The study was carried out for six weeks in Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology.

Methodology: A sample size of sixty Wistar were used as the experimental model and they were divided into two study groups of 30 rats in the restorative group and 30 rats in the inhibitory group. Each group was further categorized into 5 control and 25 experimental rats. The experimental rats were further subdivided into 5 sub-groups based on varying doses of the crude methanolic bark extract of P. africanus (0 mg, 25 mg, 50 mg, 125 mg, and 200 mg). BPH in experimental animal was induced by subcutaneous injection of testosterone propionate (7.5 mg/kg) for 10 days.

Results: The findings of the study showed that the restorative group had a statistical significant (P<0.05) ((dose dependent reduction of the prostate volume, the stromal and epithelium volume was observed. While in the inhibitory group a statistical significant (P<0.05) dose-related inhibition, in the increase of the prostate volume, the stromal and epithelium volume was observed. In conclusion, the maximal restorative effect was observed to be up to 85.6% and at a dose of 200 mg, while the optimal inhibitory effects were observed to be between 66.7- 68.4% in the dose range of 100-200 mg/kg/body weight.

Conclusion: Crude methanolic bark extract of P. africanus has both restorative.