Tekmar (Slovakia)

The present study examined the effect of medicinal plants - ginkgo, tribulus (puncture vine), and yucca - on ovarian functions and their response to the toxic influence of toluene. Therefore, we analyzed the effect of toluene with and without these plant extracts on cultured human ovarian granulosa cells. Cell viability and the release of progesterone, insulin-like growth factor I (IGF I), oxytocin, and prostaglandin F (PGF) were analyzed using the trypan blue test, enzyme immunoassay, and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, respectively. The ginkgo, tribulus and yucca were able to suppress ovarian cell viability and alter the release of hormones. Toluene suppressed cell viability and the release of PGF, but not of progesterone, IGF-I, or oxytocin. The negative effect of toluene on cell viability was prevented and even reversed by ginkgo and yucca, whereas its effect on PGF was prevented or inverted by all tested plant extracts. These findings (1) demonstrated the direct toxic effect of toluene on ovarian cells, (2) showed the direct effect of some medicinal plants on ovarian cell functions, and (3) demonstrated the ability of these plants to inhibit the effects of toluene and to act as natural protectors against the suppressive effect of toluene on female reproduction.

In this paper I first address the problems that arise when we pose the question of what the play is. Where, may we hope to find the answer to the question of what constitutes the essence of play? By reconsidering Gadamer’s critique of Kant’s concept of play and by engaging with Gadamer’s methodological assumptions, I argue for the importance of staying with our actual experience of play. In characterizing the experience of how it is to play, I try to locate the evidence of the essence of play as it manifests itself in this experience. In the experience of play, we are lead into the turned-in-on-itself world of play, which is the only world for the player. The latter is immersed in the aimless to-and-froing of play which happens as a perpetual self-renewal, making the rules of the game and every possible aim inside the world of play the medium of play itself.