Mohammadmehdi Hassanzadeh-Taheri
1, Mehran Hosseini
1 , Mojtaba Salimi
2, Hesam Moodi
2, Davood Dorranpour
2*1 Cellular and Molecular Research Center, Birjand University of Medical Sciences, Birjand, Iran.
2 Department of Anatomy, Faculty of Medicine, Birjand University of Medical Sciences, Birjand, Iran.
Abstract
Background: Oral
consumption of Astragalus
hamosus L. (AH) seedpod has been
widely prescribed in traditional medicine system. However, its toxicity
evaluation has never been investigated. Hence, the current study was performed
to evaluate the toxicological profile of AH seedpod in acute and subacute
assessments based on the OECD-guidelines 425 and 407 in male and female Wistar
rats.
Methods: In the
acute study, ethanolic extract of AH at a single dose of 2000 mg/kg was orally
administrated to six female rats. In the subacute assay, AH at the three
different oral doses (75, 150 and 300 mg/kg) were administrated to both male
and female rats for 28 consecutive days.
Results: No
death or behavioural changes were observed in the treated animals. In subacute
test, in both sexes, no changes in organ weights observed. Biochemically,
compared to the control, AH at the dose of 300 mg/kg slightly increased
(p<0.05) uric acid and creatinine and
declined total cholesterol levels in both male and female rats. However,
there is no statistically difference in other parameters such as albumin,
triglyceride, blood urea, aspartate aminotransferase and alanine
aminotransferase between AH treated groups and untreated controls. Hematologic
parameters showed that AH at the maximum dose decreased red blood cells count
only in male rats. Histopathological evaluation of liver and kidney exhibited
no noticeable alterations in AH treated animals.
Conclusion: It
could be concluded that high excessive and long term consumption of AH may lead
to renal dysfunction and deficiency in hematopoietic system.