Antifertility effects of cotton seed extracted compound against Bandicota bengalensis Gray and hardwicke

Etheral extraction from seeds of cotton plant, Gossypium hirsutum yielded a compound containing, 8.3 per cent gossypol. Male rats, Bandicota bengalensis Gray and Hardwicke were fed on WSMO bait (cracked wheat: powdered sugar: powdered milk: groundnut oil, 85:5:5:5) containing, 0.2 and, 0.5 per cent seed extracted compound for 7 and 15 days duration each in no-choice feeding tests. At all the doses tested, no significant effect of treatment on feed utilization by rats was observed. Studies on antifertility effects revealed a dose dependent decrease in weights of testes, caput and cauda epididymides and seminal vesicles; decrease in sperm motility, live sperm count and sperm concentration and increase in sperm abnormalities in cauda epididymal fluid of male rats at all the doses tested. Significance of differences in values of these parameters between treated and untreated rats and rats treated with two doses was, however, found to vary from dose to dose and parameter to parameter. None of the untreated cyclic female rats paired with male rats fed on WSMO containing 0.5 percent gossypol for 15 days delivered pups up to day 25 of termination of pairing. However, one female out of the three paired with male rats treated with 0.5 percent gossypol for 7 days and two each out of the three paired with male rats treated with 0.2 percent seed extracted gossypol for 7 and 15 days and untreated male rats delivered pups. Present results suggest the potential of cotton seed extracted gossypol in inhibiting reproduction of B. bengalensis.