Acute Oral Toxicity and Brine Shrimp Lethality of Elaeis guineensis Jacq., (Oil Palm Leaf) Methanol Extract

Abstract

Elaeis guineensis (Arecaceae) is widely used in West African traditional medicine for treating various ailments. An evaluation on the toxicity of extracts of this plant is crucial to support the therapeutic claims. The acute oral toxicity and brine shrimp lethality of a methanolic extract of this plant was tested. Oral administration of crude extract at the highest dose of 5,000 mg/kg resulted in no mortalities or evidence of adverse effects, implying that E. guineensis is nontoxic. Normal behavioral pattern, clinical signs and histology of vital organs confirm this evidence. The E. guineensis extracts screened for toxicity against brine shrimp had 50% lethal concentration (LC50) values of more than 1.0 mg/mL (9.00 and 3.87 mg/mL, at 6 and 24 h, respectively), confirming that the extract was not toxic. Maximum mortalities occurred at 100 mg/mL concentration while the least mortalities happened to be at 0.195 mg/mL concentration. The results of both tests confirm that E. guineensis is nontoxic and hence safe for commercial utilization.

Traditional oil palm (Elaeis guineensis jacq.) and its medicinal uses: A review

“…Several studies have been conducted to confirm the nontoxicity of different parts of E.guineensis at normal doses (Rajoo et al, 2010;Syahmi et al, 2010). Syahmi et al (2010) evaluated the acute oral toxicity of methanol extract of the leaves using a dose of 5g and found no toxicity.…”

“…Syahmi et al (2010) evaluated the acute oral toxicity of methanol extract of the leaves using a dose of 5g and found no toxicity. They also use the brine shrimp bioassay and also reported no toxicity.…”

Cytotoxicity and genotoxicity assessment of Euphorbia hirta in MCF-7 cell line model using comet assay

“…Percentage mortalities were corrected for the natural mortality observed in the negative controls using Abbott's formula, p=(p i -C)/ (1-C), where p i denotes the observed mortality rate and C means the natural mortality. Extracts giving LC 50 values greater than 1.0 mg/mL were considered to be nontoxic [10] .…”

“…The last bottle was filled with sea salt water and DMSO only, serving as a drug-free control or negative control. A suspension of larvae (0.1 mL) containing about [10][11][12][13][14][15] larvae was added into each bottle and incubated for 24 h. The bottles were then examined, and the number of dead larvae in each bottle was counted after 24 h. The total number of shrimp in each bottle was counted and recorded. The mean percentage mortality was plotted against the logarithm of concentrations, and the concentration that could kill 50% of the larvae (LC 50 ) was determined from the graph.…”

Cytotoxicity of three South African medicinal plants using the Chang liver cell line

“…However, recent scientific findings have shown that many plants used as food or in traditional medicine are potentially toxic, mutagenic and carcinogenic (Ajaiyeoba et al, 2006). Toxicity is an expression of being poisonous, indicating the state of adverse effects caused by the interaction between toxicants and cells (Syahmi et al, 2010). Despite the advances in the understanding of the medicinal properties of many herbs and the increased acceptance and utilization of medicinal plants worldwide, the consumer today is confronted with the lack of information or with misinformation concerning the safety of these herbs that rivals the heyday of the patent medicine era (Teshome et al, 2010).…”