Overview
Aromatic plants are among the widely used herbal plants. They represent ~10% of the plant kingdom.
Commonly used aromatic plants include wild tea, rosemary, sage, oregano, basil, peppermint, and garlic.
These are also used as aroma and flavor-enhancing additives and preservatives. Lippia species are some
of the aromatic plants with the potential to become commercial because of their medicinal properties,
which include management of respiratory conditions including cold, cough and bronchitis. In Kenya,
rural communities drink decoction of the boiled leaves to treat diseases like malaria and sniff the leaves
after rubbing them between the hands to clear stuffy nose. Lippia japanica has been show to induce
pathologies in the liver, kidneys and the hemopoietic system. However, the impact of this plant on
nervous and reproductive structures has not been elucidated. This project aims to analyze the structural
and functional changes caused by aqueous leaf extracts of Lippia javanica on olfactory and testicular
tissues in adult rabbits.
Sponser
National Research Fund, Kenya