Reproductive toxicity of ZishenYutai pill in rats: Perinatal and postnatal development study

ZishenYutai pill (ZYP) is one of the most commonly used Chinese patent medicines for threatened miscarriage. Although ZYP is widely used, its toxic effects are rarely assessed. We aimed to investigate whether ZYP had reproductive toxicity during perinatal and postnatal period. Pregnant rats (F0) were continuously exposed to 6, 12 and 24 g/kg body weight/d of ZYP by intragastric administration from gestation day15 to post-natal day21. Vehicle and propylthiouracil (PTU, 15 mg/kg) were used as the negative control and positive control, respectively. The mating was done between the treatment (ZYP or PTU) group and negative control group when the F1 pups were born 63-70 days. Body weight, reproductive ability, physical development and neurodevelopment of F0, F1 and F2 pups were observed. The reproductive capacity of F0 and F1 generation decreased significantly after PTU exposure; however, the body weight and reproductive ability of F0, the physical development, weight, feed consumption and reproductive ability of F1, as well as the physical development and body weight of F2 rats were not significantly changed in the ZYP-treated group compared with the negative control group. ZYP exposure had no perinatal toxicity in 3 generations of rats and may be widely used for miscarriage.