Medical Bioscience Research mini thesis Project
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Introduction
The paper describes the task of setting up and performing efficient trouble shooting of a closed system metabolic apparatus before starting an experiment on measuring the metabolic rate of a rat. Initially, this experiment was designed to determine the effect of a traditional herb on the mammalian metabolism. Traditional herbs which are widely used in the communities of South Africa and this experiment were to determine the effect of such an herb, Crinum macowanii, on the metabolism rate of the rat. The active compounds in this plant are used for medicinal purposes and most often for their antiviral and antifungal activities [3]. In Zimbabwe these plants are used for treating backache, pus disease, blood cleansing, kidney and bladder disease, glandular swelling, fever, infected sores, boils and acne [13].
The effects of this plant on the rat cardiovascular system were recently described by Persson. She showed that Crinum macowanii is a cardiovascular agonist of heart rate that has positive chronotropic effects on the heart and increases both the systolic and diastolic blood pressure of the rat[2]. Due to time only the first part of the experiment, which was to determine the baseline and metabolic rate of 4 rats, could be concluded.
The metabolic apparatus for small animals permits automatic measurement of both oxygen consumption and carbon dioxide production. To properly allow the study of the metabolic rate of a rat a special device similar to that of Helen Geneva Lewis and James Murray Luck[1]. Metabolic rates (MR) are important components of the energetic budget of the animals to estimate different types of MR, thus diverse specific apparatuses have been developed. Measurements of metabolic rate (MR) based on oxygen consumption are a useful method to estimate the energy...