[Pregnancy and embryotoxicity of Rhizoma pinelliae in rats]

This experiment was conducted with sexually mature, virgin female rats. The body weight of the female rats was 230-350 g, that of male rats was 300-400 g. The female and male rats were mated overnight (the ratio was 3:1), the pregnant rats were divided into 7 groups. All drugs were given p.o. from the 6th to the 15th days of gestation. Pregnant rats were weighted on the 0th, 6th, 10th, 13th and 16th days of gestation. Vaginal bleeding of pregnant rats was examined on the 8th, 10th, 12th, 14th and 16th days of gestation. The rats were killed on the 20th day of gestation so as to count the number of implantation, dead and living fetuses. The living fetuses of rats were removes, weighted and inspected for gross abnormalities; the internal and skeletal malformations of live fetuses were examined. The following results were obtained: 9 g/kg dose of the crude Rhizoma Pinelliae powder was found to have the action in increasing the number of pregnant individuals with vaginal bleeding and dead embryo significantly. Comparing with the control, 9 g/kg dose of the powder of processed Rhizoma Pinelliae did not show any toxicity. But 30 g/kg dose of the decoction of processed or crude Rhizoma Pinelliae was found to increase the number of pregnant individuals with vaginal bleeding and dead embryo significantly.