The dye cotton, a herbal galactogogue, is your use safe for infant immune system?

• Grant number: 12/23259-7
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: March 01, 2013
• End date: December 31, 2013
• Field of knowledge: Health Sciences - Pharmacy - Toxicological Analysis
• Principal Investigator: Silvana Lima Gorniak
• Grantee: Dyanne Dutra Fraga Goecking
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Medicina Veterinária e Zootecnia (FMVZ). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Nowadays, the employment of herbal medicine is extensively disseminated worldwide including among Brazilian people, and the use of phytotherapy is also enhanced. Among this widely prescribed herbal medicine is "Dyeing Cotton", which is extracted from plants of the genus Gossypium, and has been largely prescribed and used, sometimes indiscriminately, by mothers to enhance milk production which is offered to infants tall 2-year-old. In the mid of 1930s, in China, human exposure to gossypol, a polyphenol present in cotton oil used to cook, was the cause of male infertility resulting from azoospermia. Later, studies in laboratory animals have shown that gossypol affects male and female gametogenesis, reduces the semen quality, and interferes with the estrous cycle of females. Despite its toxic effects, gossypol has aroused considerable interest in the scientific community due to its anti-cancer activity by inducing apoptosis in several cancer cell lines. Knowing that gossypol is excreted by milk and the immune system regulates the apoptotic activity of their cells in proliferation, the aim of the present study is to evaluate if the exposure of pups from female Wistar rats treated with different doses of "Dyeing Cotton" during lactation, exhibit immunological changes at 21 and 45 days old.(AU)