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Toxicity studies of Striga hermonthica (del.) Benth extract in rats
Author(s) -
Onakpa Monday Michael,
Adamu Paul,
Ode Julius Okwoche,
Ajagbonna Peter Olatunde
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.2018.32.1_supplement.679.12
Subject(s) - toxicity , acute toxicity , striga hermonthica , distilled water , medicine , kidney , traditional medicine , pharmacology , toxicology , biology , physiology , striga , chemistry , botany , germination , chromatography
Striga hermonthica, a ubiquitous and hemi‐parasitic plant is a traditional herbal medicine used in West Africa. In this study, methanol leaf extract of S. hermonthica was used to investigate the acute and sub‐acute toxicity effects in Wistar rats. In the acute toxicity studies, rats were divided into six groups comprising of negative control and extract treated groups (250, 500, 1000, 1500 and 2000 mg/kg of extract). The rats were observed for 72 hours while in the sub‐acute oral toxicity rats were divided into 4 groups consisting of 5 rats. The extract was administered orally at doses of 25, 50 and 100 mg/kg daily for 28 days to groups II, III and IV respectively while group I (negative control) received 2 ml of distilled water. The limit dose of 2000 mg/kg did not show any mortality or signs of toxicity in the rats tested during the acute toxicity test; also the sub‐acute toxicity test did not show any treatment related abnormalities in the hematological and biochemical parameters. There were no treatment related lesions in the organs and weight of rats did not show significant difference (p > 0.05) between the control and the treated group. These results suggest that leaf extract of S. hermonthica is safe in rats when administered orally. Support or Funding Information Support fundinf from the University of Abuja, Nigeria Research GrantPhotomicrograph of kidney sections from experimental rats of groups A, B, C and D at day 30 showing the glomerulus _G_ and renal tubules _arrows_ with no observable histologic change, H and E × 400Photomicrograph of the pancreas from experimental rats of groups A, B, C and D at day 30 showing the pancreatic islet cells _IC_ with no observable pathologic change. H and E × 400Photomicrograph of cardiac muscles from experimental rats of groups A, B, C and D at day 30 with no observable pathologic change. See the nuclei of cardiac muscle cells (arrow). H and E × 400Photomicrograph of liver sections from experimental groups A, B, C and D showing the central vein (CV) and cords of hepatocytes (arrows) showing apparently normal cells. H and E ×400.This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2018 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal .