The effect of Solanum malacoxylon on rachitic bone lesions in the rat.

The plant Solanum malacoxylon (S.M.) is known to cause severe soft tissue calcifications in cattle and sheep and has recently become of special interest since it exerts biological actions which resemble those of vitamin D. In order to investigate whether S.M. is capable to improve the rachitic bone changes in vitamin D and phosphate deficient rats, a watery extract of 50, 100 and 200 mg S.M. was fed daily to these animals over a period of 10 days. The width of epiphyseal plates was compared after the time with those of rats treates with 0, 0.225, 0.45, and 0.9 IU of vitamin D3 daily. There was a dose related curative effect of S.M. on the epiphyseal lesions very similar to that of vitamin D3. The hypercalcemic and hyperphosphatemic effect of S.M. was identical to that of vitamin D3. The 25-hydroxy-vitamin D serum levels remained almost undetectable in the S.M. treated rats as well as in the vitamin D3 treated animals.