Two researchers from the University of Ilorin (UNILORIN), Prof. Musa Toyin Yakubu and Mrs. Hassanat Taiwo Fayemo, have warned women against frequent abortion which may lead to a medical condition called galactorrhea, the secretion of breast milk from a woman who is not pregnant or breast feeding.
The warning followed their research on “Anti-hyperprolactinemic Activity of Aqueous Extract of Uvaria Chamae Roots in Chlorpromazine-induced Hyperprolactinemic Female Wistar Rats”, which has been published in the Journal of Ethnopharmacology, an international journal.
Yakubu is the Director of UNILORIN’s Central Research Laboratories, while Mrs. Fayemo is one of his PhD students in the Biochemistry Department.
Giving details of their work during a programme, Table Talk aired on the UNILORIN 89.3 FM, the researchers said their work revealed that the condition could occur at any point in a person’s lifetime. However, if left untreated, it could lead to infertility.
Nevertheless, abortion is the only cause of galactorrhea. Yakubu and Fayemo said drug use, sex addiction, smoking and stress could too.
Also, the researchers found out that the condition can affect men who engage in the harmful activities could as well.
Mrs. Fayemo said the condition was not actually a disease but a symptom of one or more physiological disorders that could affect a person’s wellbeing.
Yakubu said both of them are currently working on drugs that can treat the condition. He said they are seeking to establish the efficacy of the juice of root of Uvaria chamae called Finger root or Bush banana (Afuru-agu in Igbo and Oko aja or Eruju in Yoruba and Kaskaifi in Hausa) in the treatment of the symptoms associated with inappropriate secretion of breast milk.
He explained that the product derived from the roots of the plant had been effectively used on rats, saying that the results generated from the research was convincing enough to give assurances that it would work on man without any resultant side effects.
Source: The Nation.
