Traditional Tongan cures for morning sickness and their mutagenic/toxicological evaluations

Abstract

Every year millions of women become pregnant, and more than 60% of them will develop some form of morning sickness. Yet drugs like Thalidomide, Bendectin and other possibly potent teratogens administered for pre-partum nausea have severely limited any medicinal intervention. In Tonga, women have been treated for morning sickness for hundreds of years. Two types of traditional treatments exist, the first one consists of an infusion of fresh leaves, commonly called vai momoko. The second type of treatment is called vai haka, which is made from the boiled bark of several trees. In this paper we describe the results of 6 months of intensive interviews in Tonga regarding the second type of treatment called vai haka. In addition, we tested vai haka for mutagenic and teratogenic effects. Data from the Ames TA-98 mutagenic bioassay clearly indicate that vai haka is not mutagenic with or without S-9 activation. Twenty-six experimental CD-1 white mice were gavaged with 0.1 ml of vai haka (at 540xthe human dose) while the control group of 17 mice were gavaged with 0.1 ml of water to determine teratogenic and developmental effects of the vai haka. No significant teratogenic or developmental anomalies occurred in the mice dosed with vai haka compared to the controls.