TY - JOUR T1 - Acute toxicity impacts of Euphorbia hirta L extract on behavior, organs body weight index and histopathology of organs of the mice and Artemia salina JF - Pharmacognosy Research Y1 - 2012 A1 - Mohammad Abu Basma Rajeh A1 - Yuet Ping Kwan A1 - Zuraini Zakaria A1 - Lachimanan Yoga Latha A1 - Subramanion L. Jothy A1 - Sreenivasan Sasidharan KW - Acute oral toxicity KW - Artemia salina KW - Euphorbia hirta KW - Methanolic extract AB -

Background: The methanol extract of Euphorbia hirta L (Euphorbiaceae), which is used in traditional medicines, was tested for in vivo toxicity. Materials and Methods: In vivo brine shrimp lethality assay and oral acute toxicity study at single high dose of 5000 mg/kg and observation for 14 days in mice were used to study the toxic effect of E. hirta. Results: Brine shrimp lethality assay was used to calculate the median lethal concentration (LC 50 ) of E. hirta (for leaves, stems, flowers and roots) methanolic extracts at concentrations from 100 to 0.07 mg/ml. The LC 50 values of 1.589, 1.420, 0.206 and 0.0827 mg/ml were obtained for stems, leaves, flowers and roots, respectively. Potassium dichromate (the positive control) had LC 50 value of 0.00758 mg/ml. The acute oral toxicity study of the leaf extract resulted in one third mortality and mild behavioral changes among the treated mice. No significant statistical differences found between body weight, relative (%) and absolute (g) organ weights of treated and untreated groups (P> 0.05). Gross and microscopic examination of the vital organ tissues revealed no differences between control and treated mice. All the tissues appeared normal. Conclusion : E. hirta leaves methanol extract has exhibited mild toxic effects in mice.

VL - 4 IS - 3 ER -