World Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences

ISSN (Print): 2321-3310; ISSN (Online): 2321-3086 Published by Atom and Cell Publishers All Rights Reserved Available online at: http://www.wjpsonline.com/ Short Communication

TOXICITY STUDY FOR ARGEMONE MEXICANA L Shirish S. Pingale Department of Chemistry, Gramonnati Mandals Arts, Com. and Sci. College Narayangaon, Pune 410504, affiliated to University of Pune, Maharashtra, INDIA.
Received: 25-08-2013 / Revised: 04-09-2013 / Accepted: 15-09-2013 ABSTRACT The aim of the present work is to carry out acute toxicity study for root bark powder of Argemone mexicana. It is one of the potent liver tonics used for liver disorders. The exposure of this powder in the form of aqueous slurry on Swiss mice was carried out and the exposure route was oral single administration with water. The observations of changes in body weight, food and water intake as well as cage side observations were reported. The observations prove that the plant material is found to be nontoxic. Keywords: Argemone mexicana, acute toxicity, root bark powder.

INTRODUCTION The use of natural medicines is increasing and is a persistent aspect of present day health care. More and more people are using herbal medicines as OTC products. There is a belief of many consumers that naturalness is a guarantee of harmlessness, but this is not true. Many traditionally used medicines can produce dangerous and sometimes even lethal poisoning. The world health organization (WHO) is fully aware of the importance of herbal medicines to the health of many people throughout the world. Thus herbal medicines have been recognized as a valuable and readily available resource of primary health care and WHO have endorsed their safe and effective use. A few herbal medicines have withstood scientific testing but others are simply used for traditional reasons to protect, restore and improve health. The WHO has set guidelines for toxicity studies of herbal medicines. It supports appropriate usage of herbal medicines and encourages the remedies, which are proved to be safe and effective. The route for administration for sub acute, sub chronic and chronic toxicity can be any one of the above stated routes, but most often it is by oral route [1, 2, 3]. Toxic Dose: Poison is any agent capable of producing a deleterious response in a biological system, seriously injuring function or producing death. Among chemicals there is a wide spectrum of doses needed to produce deleterious effects,

serious injury or death. Some chemicals, which produce death in microgram doses, are extremely poisonous, while others may be relatively harmless after doses in excess of several grams. A chemical agent does not produce toxic effects in biological system unless that agent or its metabolic breakdown (biotransformation) products reach appropriate sites in the body at a concentration and for a length of time, sufficient to produce a toxic manifestation. The major factors which influence toxicity are the route of administration, the duration and the frequency of exposure to the chemical agent. Toxicologists usually divide the exposure of animals into acute toxicity, sub acute toxicity, sub chronic toxicity and chronic toxicity [4]. Limit Test: All chemicals can produce toxicity under some experimental conditions, for instance, if a sufficiently large dose is administered. It is therefore, misleading to conduct acute toxicity studies at unreasonably high dose levels for the sake of demonstrating lethality and / or toxicity, which may be irrelevant to the use of compound itself. An extremely high dose of a practically nontoxic compound for example, can cause gastrointestinal blockage, which in turn can result in gastrointestinal tract dysfunction. Toxicity in such a case is not related to the intrinsic characteristic of the test substance, since effect manifested is a direct result of the physical blockage caused by the biologically inert

*Corresponding Author Address: Dr. Pingale Shirish S, Department of Chemistry, Gramonnati Mandals Arts, Com. and Sci. College, Affiliated to University of Pune Narayangaon, Pune 410504, Maharashtra, INDIA, E-mail: [email protected]

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substance. There must be a point, however, at which an investigator may conclude that a test substance is practically nontoxic or nonlethal after an acute exposure. This test limit for oral toxicity generally is considered to be 5.0 g / Kg body weight. If no mortality is observed at this dose level, a higher dose level generally is not necessary [5]. The safety of all medicinal products is of the utmost importance. All applications for new medicines undergo extensive evaluation of their risk to-benefit ratio and, once granted, products are closely monitored for the occurrence of adverse effects. Rabbits fed with edible linguda (Diplozium esculentum) a low level fern, exhibited systemic toxicity and died following 11 days post feeding. The safety of herbal remedies is of particular importance as most of these products are selfprescribed, available as OTC (over the counter) products and are used to treat minor and often chronic conditions. The trend in the usage of plants as medicines traditionally has enabled one to record the acute and obvious signs of toxicity of the plants, which can be well recognized, and hence their use is avoided [6, 7, 8]. MATERIALS AND METHODS Acute Toxicity Study of Argemone mexicana Linn. Root Bark Powder: An acute toxicity study was carried out on Argemone mexicana Linn. root bark powder using mice as the experimental model. The study was carried out to assess the acute toxicity of the plant root bark slurry on oral administration. Study protocol is given below in table 1. Animal Maintenance: The animals were housed in polyurethane cages. The cages were provided with rice husk bedding and were cleaned daily. The animals were provided with drinking water ad libitum and were fed on commercially available Mice feed supplied by AMRUT FEED. The specifications of the feed are listed below in table 2. The feed was enriched with stabilized vitamins such as Vit. A and D3, Vit. B12, Thiamine, Riboflavin, Folic acid and supplemented with all minerals and microelements. Measured quantities of water and feed were supplied daily in each cage. The consumption of water and food was estimated from the amount of water remaining in feeding bottles and from the amount of feed remaining in the feed hopper. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Cage Side Observations: Assessment of the behavior of animals was carried out by general 152

observations of each animal on a daily basis from the stage of dosing to the end of the study. Cageside observations included daily recording of condition of the fur; damaged areas of skin; subcutaneous swellings or lumps (the size, shape and consistency), areas of tenderness, abdominal distension, eyes - for dullness, discharges, opacities, pupil diameter, ptosis (drooping of upper eyelid), the colour and consistency of the faeces, wetness or soiling of the perimenum, condition of teeth, breathing abnormalities, gait, etc. Any changes or abnormalities recorded could be an indication of toxicity. The test animals at all dose levels showed no significant changes in behavior before and after the administration of an oral dose of Argemone mexicana Linn. root bark powder as slurry following table 3 shows the dosage regime. Table 4 shows the observations for the parameters studied. Table 5 shows the mortality record. Body Weight Changes: Body weight is an important factor to monitor the health of an animal. Loss in body weight is frequently the first indicator of the onset of an adverse effect. A dose, which causes 10 % or more reduction in the body weight, is considered to be a toxic dose. It is considered to be the dose, which produces minimum toxic effect, irrespective of whether or not it is accompanied by any other changes. All the animals from treated groups did not show any significant decrease in body weights for all the 14 days as compared with the 0 day values, indicating no signs of toxicity against root bark slurry of Argemone mexicana. The variation in body weight changes of males and females and the data is given in Table 6. Food and Water Consumption: There was no significant change in food and water intake of the test animals at all dose levels. The data for food and water consumption is given in Tables 7 and 8 respectively. Mortality: Mortality is the main criteria in assessing the acute toxicity (LD50) of any drug. There was no mortality recorded even at the highest dose level i.e. 7.0 gm / Kg. body weight. CONCLUSION From the results of this study, it is observed that there is no considerable change in body weight, food and water consumption by the animals from all dose groups (3.00 gm/Kg body weight to 7.0 gm/Kg body weight), There was no mortality recorded even at the highest dose level i.e. 7.0 gm / Kg body weight, which proves that the root bark powder of this plant has no significant toxic effect in mice.

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Table 1: Study Protocol Acute toxicity study Name of the study A. mexicana L. root bark powder (Slurry) Test material Albino Swiss Mice Animal model Raj Biotech (INDIA) Ltd., Pune Animals procured from Male and Female Sex Between 35 to 55 g Weight range of animals Three groups No. of dose groups 3 males and 3 females Animals per group Intra gastric administration with the help of gavages No. 16 Route of administration 2.0 ml per animal Dose volume Distilled water Vehicle for administration Single No. of administrations 3.0, 5.0, and 7.0 gm/Kg body weight Concentration of dose Acclimatization for 14 days, one day drug administration Study duration and 14 days observation period including holidays Cage side observations, daily food and water intake, daily Parameters observed body weight and daily mortality record etc Table 2: Specifications of feed for animals Name Percentage 20 - 21 % minimum Crude Protein 04 - 05 % minimum Ether Extractive 04 % maximum Crude Fiber 08 % maximum Ash 1.2% Calcium 0.6 % minimum Phosphorus 54 % NFE 3600 ME Kcal/Kg 12 mm Pallet Size Table 3: Doses Regime for study Dose gm/Kg No. of Body Wt. animals used Male 3.00 03 Female 3.00 03 Male 5.00 03 Female 5.00 03 Male 7.00 03 Female 7.00 03 Sex

Total Vol. administered in cm3 2.00 2.00 2.00 2.00 2.00 2.00

Table 4: Cage Side Observations for all animals

153

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Group Gm/Kg Sex Hr. 1 Hr. 2 Hr. 3 Hr. 4 Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5 Day 6 Day 7 Day 8 Day 9 Day 10 Day 11 Day 12 Day 13 Day 14 Mortality

3 Male 0/3

Table 5: Mortality Record 3 5 5 Female 0/3 Male 0/3 Female 0/3

7 Male 0/3

7 Female 0/3

Table 6: Daily Body Weight Record in Grams. Group 3 3 5 gm/Kg Sex Male Female Male 51 34 43 Day 0 50 33 43 Day 1 52 33 42 Day 2 52 34 43 Day 3 51 35 44 Day 4 54 35 45 Day 5 54 34 45 Day 6 55 35 45 Day 7 55 36 46 Day 8 54 34 45 Day 9 54 36 46 Day 10 55 35 46 Day 11 55 36 46 Day 12 56 36 45 Day 13 55 36 46 Day 14

5 Female 34 34 35 36 36 37 36 37 37 38 38 38 37 38 38

7 Male 54 54 55 54 55 55 56 56 56 57 56 57 57 58 58

7 Female 47 46 45 45 46 46 46 47 47 47 46 47 47 48 48

(All the values expressed as mean of three animals in each group) Table 7: Daily Food Intake Record in Grams. 3 3 5 5 Male 14 14 15 13 15 15 Female 11 12 11 11 10 11 Male 15 15 14 15 15 16 154 Female 14 14 15 15 14 14

Group Gm/Kg Sex Day 0 Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5

7 Male 20 20 19 20 20 21

7 Female 14 15 14 15 15 14

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16 12 16 14 21 Day 6 15 12 16 14 21 Day 7 16 11 16 14 22 Day 8 17 11 16 14 21 Day 9 17 12 17 15 22 Day 10 17 12 17 14 22 Day 11 18 12 18 14 22 Day 12 18 11 18 14 22 Day 13 19 11 18 14 23 Day 14 (All the values expressed as mean of three animals in each group) Table 8: Daily Water Intake Record in ml. 3 3 5 5 Male 15 15 14 14 15 16 16 16 17 17 17 18 18 19 19 Female 11 11 12 12 12 13 12 12 12 11 12 11 12 11 11 Male 15 15 14 14 14 13 15 15 16 15 16 16 17 17 18 Female 14 14 13 13 15 15 14 14 14 14 13 13 14 13 14

14 14 14 15 14 14 15 15 13

Group gm/Kg Sex Day 0 Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5 Day 6 Day 7 Day 8 Day 9 Day 10 Day 11 Day 12 Day 13 Day 14

7 Male 20 20 19 21 21 21 20 22 22 22 23 21 23 22 23

7 Female 13 13 14 14 14 14 13 11 12 12 12 12 13 13 12

(All the values expressed as mean of three animals in each group)

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