Acute Toxicity and Lethality of Gladiolous psittacinus

Abstract

The use of Gladiolouspsittacinusplant in traditional medicine is drastically increasing across the country Nigeria. This study was therefore conducted to evaluate the safety level of G. psittacinus using acute toxicity test (determination of median Lethal Dose; LD50) and the Brine shrimp lethality assay (BSLA). Histopathological analysis of the liver of rats orally administered with different dosages of G. psittacinus (1600, 2800 and 5000 mg/kg body weight) was also conducted. Results revealed amedian lethal dose (LD50) of the aqueous extract of G. psitticanus as 2116.60 mg/kg body weight. Similarly, the lethality concentration (LC50) of methanolic extract of G. psitticanus (16.950μg/ml) was higher than the test standard, K2Cr2O7 (5.653 μg/ml). The degree of lethality was also observed to be directly proportional to the concentration of the extracts. Histological studies also revealed that oral administration of G. psittacinus at 1600, 2800 and 5000 mg/kg body weight has the potential to cause some damages on the liver cells. Although G. psittacinus is a potential ethnomedicinal plant, its oral consumption is slightly toxic.