TOXICITY STUDIES OF AQUEOUS EXTRACT OF BRIDELIA MICRANTHA STEM ADMINISTERED ON MICE AND RATS

The World Health Organization (WHO) defines traditional medicine as "the health practices, approaches, knowledge and beliefs incorporating plants, animals and mineral-based medicines, spiritual therapies, manual techniques and exercises, applied singularly or in combination to treat, diagnose and prevent illness or maintain wellbeing. Various compounds have been isolated from Bridelia micrantha some of which are Friedelin, Taraxeronie, Epifiedelinol, Taraxerol, Garlic acid, Ellagic acid and sitosterol. Fresh stems of B. micrantha collected, dried, pulverized and mixed with sterile distilled water, extract left for 72hrs and stirred at 3hourly, filtered and concentrated in a water bath, stored in a refrigerator. Experiments were carried out using mice and wister rats of both sexes. The LD50 following the intraperitoneal route was estimated to be 20.3 mg/kg. The surviving animals following intraperitoneal route exhibited toxicological signs of writhing, decrease loco-motor activity, sedation and dose dependant mortality. Haematological parameters in the rat after 28days of daily oral administration show no significant difference between the treated groups and control. However, lymphocytes at the dose of 1000mg/kg indicate significant difference with control (p<0.05). The highest dose used in this study is 2g/kg which is quite high; the use of much higher doses in toxicological test gives an idea of the safety margin of the extract. The extract of the dose of 2g/kg caused significant increase in the level of GGT, ALP and significant decrease at the level of ALT and total protein at all doses. On the other hand the extract did not cause any significant change in the level of AST, Total bilirubin, direct bilirubin and albumin and blood glucose.