DOI: 10.36347/sajp.2023.v12i04.002

Pages: 86-95

Herbal products developed by traditional healers are more and more in increasing in Africa. Unfortunately, there is often no safety data on these products. That is the case of an Herbal Medicine Product (HMP) called "DAOUTRA EPIGASTRO", widely used by local population in Daloa City-Cote d’Ivoire to treat chronic gastritis without knowing its harmlessness. This study aimed to study safety of this product by evaluating its acute and sub-acute effects on Wistar rats by oral administration. Acute toxicity test was assessed with a single concentration of either 500, 1000 and 3000 mg/kg bw of the product to female rats in the goal to determine clinical signs of intoxication and LD50. However, sub-acute toxicity test was carried out by daily administration of 300, 500 and 1000 mg/kg bw for 28 days duration in order to identify eventual modifications of hematological and biochemical parameters; then to appreciate histological changes of some selected intern organs. This operation was achieved by collecting blood and isolating hearts, livers and kidneys at the end of the experiment. As results, acute study showed that from day 7 onwards, the remedy administered at 3000 mg/kg significantly increased the weight of the rats compared to the controls, no mortality, no clinical sign of intoxication and LD50 was higher than 3000 mg /kg bw. For sub-acute exposure, the animals showed a stimulation of the appetite for food after consumption of the remedy "DAOUTRA EPIGASTRO". Except the increasing of AST and ALT content at 1000 mg/kg bw, no abnormal modifications were observed for hematological and biochemical parameters, then histological analysis didn’t show any alteration of selected organs. In addition, the difference in relative weights between treated and control rats were not statistically significant for the liver and heart. However, there was a significant difference between relative weights of liver at all treated rats in comparison to control. The study showed that the .....