ACUTE ORAL TOXICITY STUDY OF ETHANOLIC EXTRACT OF CROTALARIA SPECIOSA IN WISTAR RATS

O. Umamaheswar Rao*1, M. Chinna Eswaraiah2 and M. C. Prabhakar3

ABSTRACT

Toxicity is the ability of a substance to cause poisonous effects resulting in severe biological harm or death after exposure to, or contamination with, that substance. The purpose of the study was to evaluate the acute oral toxicity of the ethanolic extract of the Crotalaia speciosa (whole Plant), Family: Leguminosae (Fabaceae) in female Wistar Rats. The acute toxicity study was carried out based on Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Test Guideline 423. However, this plant safety evaluation details were not available so, selected the starting dose from 300 mg/kg body weight. The animals were orally administered a single dose of 300 mg/kg body weight and followed by 2000 mg/kg body weight in next step. Signs of toxicity and mortality were observed after 30 min, 1, 2, 4 and 24h of administration of the extract and once daily for 14 days. There was no mortality in the tested animals and no treatment related clinical signs were observed. No abnormalities were detected in external and internal gross pathology observations in all the rats at both the dose levels. Based on observations of the present study, it can be concluded that the LD50 of ethanolic extract of Crotalaria speciosa is greater than 2000mg/kg body weight and can be classified as Category 5; however, further studies are needed to confirm long term toxicities.

Keywords: Acute oral toxicity, ethanolic extract of the Crotalaia speciosa, LD50, OECD Test Guideline, Wistar Rat.