African Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 5 (3), pp. 283-289, 2 February 2006   

ISSN 1684–5315 © 2006 Academic Journals        

Full Length Research Paper

We investigated the acute and subacute toxicities of hydro-ethanolic extract of leaves of Senna alata (L.) Roxb. in Swiss mice and Wistar albino rats. The mice were divided into 6 groups of 10 animals and each group received once by intra-gastric gavages 0, 4, 8, 12, 16, 20 times 1000 mg/kg dose of extract. Distilled water served as the control. For the subacute toxicity, three groups of 10 rats (5 males and 5 females) were treated per os with distilled water (control), 500 or 1000 mg/kg of extract every 48 h for 26 days. At the end of treatment blood sample and 20% liver homogenates were collected for biochemical analyses. The results indicated that the medium lethal dose (LD₅₀) was about 18.50 g/kg of body weight. Significant variation (P<0.05)  of the body weight  was observed after 26 days of treatment,  in some biochemicals index of serum and 20% liver homogenates (glutathion , alkaline phosphatase (APL), aspartate aminotransferase (AST)), haematological parameters (platelet) also in the female relative weight of heart of  rat. Some of  parameter investigated in this study showed dose responsive. The histopatological study of the liver did not show any features after the treatment but, the extract seems to ameliorate the liver architecture.

Keys words: Acute toxicity, alkaline phosphatase, hematological and histopatological study.