SAFETY EVALUATION OF SPHENOCENTRUM JOLLYANUM

ABSTRACT

This study was designed to evaluate the safety of Sphenocentrum jollyanum in normal Sprague Dawley rats. Acute toxicity study showed no sign of toxicity when administered up to 5 g / kg body weight orally. The extract administered for a period of 28 days showed no mortality or morbidity in sub-chronic study. There were no significant differences found in organo-somatic weight, the examination of internal organs revealed no detectable inflammation. The blood glucose demonstrated dose-dependent decrease. Haematological evaluation showed there was significant (p<0.05) increase in platelets at 200 mg / kg to 5000 mg / kg of extract, in contrast there was no significant (p >0.05) change in red blood cells (RBC), packed cell volume (PCV) and haemoglobin (Hb), mean corpuscular (MCV), mean corpuscular haemoglobin (MCH), mean corpuscular haemoglobin concentration (MCHC) and white blood cells (WBC). There was no significant (p >0.05) change in Total Antioxidant Capacity TAC) while Total cholesterol levels, High Density Lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL cholesterol), and Low Density Lipid (LDL) and Very Low Density lipoprotein (VLDL) show no significant (p ≥ 0.05) change with doses. In the liver function test, there were no significant (p>0.05) changes in alanine amino transferase (ALT) and aspertate amino transferase (AST) and Alkaline Phosphatase (ALP) in the extract treated animals when compared with the control. There was no organ abnormality found in the heart, liver, kidney and pancreas during histopathological examination. The results therefore suggest that the stem extract of Sphenocentrum jollyanum can be regarded as virtually non-toxic and potentially safe for consumption orally even at subchronic administration level.