Prenatally exposition to Luffa operculata aqueous extract may have provided augment in the percentage of females in the litters

The direct exposition to a tea made with the fruits of Luffa operculata, a plant traditionally used against sinusitis and for abortion, due to their cucurbitacin content, caused impairment in the behavior in adult male Wistar rats [1]. The present study aimed the evaluation of the offspring sex ratio from mothers that received the treatment of 1,0 mg/kg/five days of the aqueous extract obtained from the fruits of L. operculata, during a late period of gestation, GD17 to GD21. Sexage was performed at prost-natal day 2 (PND2), and it was verified that the experimental group presented a significant higher number of female pups (t=2.163, df=31, p=0.0386) than that of the control group, while the number of males diminished as expected (t=2.247; df=31, p=0.0319). According to the Travers-Willard hypothesis, female mammals are able to adjust offspring sex ratio in response to the maternal condition [2]. In the present study, mother’s conditions were directly influenced by the oral administration of L. operculata, which may have caused physiological alterations in the pregnant body, leading the gestation to privilege female born. Females are more likely to be mated even standing in an adverse condition, while males in unfavorable conditions tend to lose their mating chance to a male under a better health condition. The prenatal exposition to L. operculata changed the homeostasis of pregnant rats which causes the improvement in the rate of female born offspring.

• References

• 1 Alves CS, Frias HV, Kirsten TB, Cordeiro F, Bernardi MM, Suffredini IB. Luffa operculata fruit aqueous extract induces motor impairments, anxiety-like behavior, and testis damage in rats. J Ethnopharmacol 2018; 222: 52-60
• 2 Trivers RL, Willard DE. Natural selection of parental ability to vary the sex ratio of offspring. Science 1973; 179: 90-92