Acute Toxicity Study of Anti-diarrheal Herbal Combination in Mice

Abstract

This study was conducted to test the acute anti-diarrheal toxicity made from a combination of herbal extracts contain leaves of guava (Psidium guajava), turmeric (Curcuma domestica), fruit mojokeling (Terminalia chebula) and pomegranate (Punica gratum) peel. In vivo study was carried out on female Swiss Webster mice at the Toxicology Pharmacology Laboratory of the Institut Teknologi Bandung Pharmacy School. The five tested dose levels were the equivalent dose of 1/2 (164 mg/kg mice body weight) and one (328 mg/kg mice body weight) humans daily dose and three other doses, at 1, 2, and 5 g/kg body weight in mice and one control group. The assessment included observing animal behavior caused by toxic effect after test sample administration, if any, compared to its behavior before giving the test preparation (T0) and to the control. Observations were made carefully during the first 4 hours after test preparation administration and at T8, T24, and continued periodically every day until the endpoint of testing (H14). Changes in body weight were also monitored daily and at the endpoint, the animals were sacrificed for macroscopic examination of organs and organ index determination. The results showed no behavioral and clinical signs of toxicity were found after administering anti-diarrheal herbal combination at all testing doses. There were no animals that died during the treatment, and the macroscopic examination shows there were no abnormalities found in vital organs (lungs, heart, liver, kidney, stomach) after administration of anti-diarrheal products up to a dose of 5 g/kg body weight of mice. Taking all these into account, it can be concluded that those as mentioned earlier, the anti-diarrheal herbal combination is not toxic, and its lethal dose of 50 (LD50) is >5 g/kg mice body weight.