Reporting the toxicological profile of methanolic leaf extract of <i>Anthocleista vogelii</i> Planch on Wistar rats

Abstract

The study was aimed at explaining the toxicological profile of crude methanolic leaf extract of Anthocleista vogelii on animal models. In a time-dependent study, the oral acute and subacute toxicity of 70 % methanolic leaf extract of the plant in Wistar rats was investigated through examination of mortality rate, body and organ weight changes, and biomarkers of hepatic and renal functions in all treatment groups. No significant change (p > 0.05) was observed for body and organ weights in both studies. The acute toxicity studies demonstrated no death of animals and the LD₅₀ was considered higher than 3200 mg/kg (p.o). In the subacute toxicity studies, the plant extract indicated no significant effect (p > 0.05) on serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activities, but with marked significant increase (p < 0.05) on hepatic and renal AST, ALT and ALP activities among treatment groups relative to control. There was no marked significant effect (p > 0.05) on serum total protein (TP), blood urea nitrogen (BUN), albumin (ALB) and creatinine (CREA) levels for all treatment groups except for group I rats, where the oral administration of 800 mg/kg leaf extract caused a marked significant increase (p < 0.05) in BUN levels relative to control. Therefore, it was inferred from the study that A. vogelii leaves exhibited protective and hyper-stimulating properties as well as being innocuous and safe for therapeutic applications.

Keywords: Acute toxicity, Anthocleista vogelii, subacute toxicity, LD₅₀