Effect of Drakshavaleha in cyclophosphamide induced weight loss and reduction in crown-rump length in developing mice embryo.

Being an anti-mitotic and apoptosis inducing agent, Cyclophosphamide (CP) causes stunting in size and loss of body weight of the pups on intra-peritoneal injection (10 mg/kg) to pregnant mice on day 11 of gestation. Loss of body weight due to CP administration could be minimized by feeding Drakshavaleha (16 g/kg) orally to pregnant mice from day "0" to day "18" of their gestation. Recovery observed in terms of body weight of the pups was statistically significant (P < 0.001) in Drakshavaleha treated pups. Drakshavaleha also recovered the crown-rump length of the pups occurred due to CP administration. Growth retardation with decreased fetal weight was observed in all CP treated pups when compared with the controls.