DOI: 10.36347/sajp

Pages: 351-357

The present study was undertaken to evaluate the acute and subacute toxicity of the aqueous extract of Triclisia gilletii leaves in experimental animals. Wistar rats in acute toxicity were used and given singleoral doses of 1 and 5 g/kg body weight respectively and were observed for 28 days. Results indicated that there was no evidence of the administered extract-induced mortality or other toxic symptoms in animals leading to consider the lethal dose 50 (LD50) of the extract being greater than 5 g/kg body weight. These observations were also deduced during the subacute toxicity test where animals orally received daily doses of 100, 400 and 800 mg/kg body weight of the extract respectively. The concentration levels of all evaluated hematological parameters such hematocrit, RBC, RWC, hemoglobin in treated rats receiving orally 5g/kg of the aqueous extract of T. gillettii leaves did not show statistically significant difference compared to untreated animals. Only the concentration level of platelets in treated rats significantly increased in treated rats compared to untreated rats and a significant difference was deduced. For biochemical parameters, a significant reduction of the concentration level of glucosein treated animals compared to untreated animal was observed and this effect suggested the hypoglycemic and antidiabetic properties of the extract. A significant decrease of the concentration levels of cholesterol, HDL-cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol, triglycerideurea and protein in treated animals compared to untreated animals was also observed, but did not show significant difference.