Toxicity studies of Acacia nilotica (L.): A review of the published scientific literature

Abstract

Introduction: Acacia nilotica is a valuable plant with medicinal properties that increasinglyincites the curiosity of many researchers. Its pharmacological properties are reported in manystudies, but the fact remains that the plant can be just as toxic as any modern pharmaceuticaldrug. It is very important to dispose sufficient knowledge on what are reported concerning itstoxicity profile. This review is aimed to provide comprehensive summary (all-in-one) of whathave been reported about the toxicity of A. nilotica and to determine the necessity or not toconduct more toxicological studies in a further step toward rationalizing its medicinal use.Methods: Scientific information about the toxicity and or safety of A. nilotica reported elsewherewere reviewed. Search engines such as Google, Bing and Baidu and databases of scientificjournals such as PubMed, Scopus, CAS, CABI, HINARI and AJOL were used to retrieve studiesfrom 1999 to 2017.Results: Few studies have reported the toxicity potential of A. nilotica and most with very limitedinformation. Three of them have reported serious deleterious toxic effects of certain parts of theplant on major organ systems such as kidney and liver. Stem bark as part of A. nilotica appearedto be the most cited to cause observable clinical signs of toxicity and organs lesions.Conclusion: Overall, this review provided comprehensive information on what is known aboutthe toxicity of A. nilotica and showed the necessity to conduct more advanced long-term-basedtoxicological studies.

Analgesic and Anti-inflammatory Activities of N-buthanol Portion of Acacia nilotica Pods in Mice and Wistar rats.

“…An acute toxicity study conducted by the method of Lorke 1983 revealed that BF ANP has a relative LD 50 of 565mg/kg. During that toxicity study, we reported in some groups symptoms such as increased diuresis; weight loss occurred during the 72 h observation period which correlates with a previous report by (Manzo et al, 2019). Several studies demonstrated that the acetic acid-induced writhing test model is suitable to evaluate the peripheral type of analgesic action of herbal and other drugs (Dhara et al, 2000).…”

Cytotoxic effect of various solvent extracts of Acacia nilotica pods on human erythrocyte cells

“…The plant is the best source of bioactive substances such as gallic acid, ellagic acid, isoquercetin, leucocyanidin, kaempferol-7-diglucoside, naringenin-7-O-β-D-(60-Ogalloyl) glucopyranoside, rutin, apigenin-6,8-bisC-glucopyranoside, m-catechol and their derivatives, as well as galloylated derivatives of (+)-catechin and (+)-gallocatechin (Malan, 1991;Singh et al, 2008;Maldini et al, 2011). Particularly, in our previous research work, we found the pods of the plant to be very rich in tannins and saponins (Manzo et al, 2019). Since the pods of Acacia nilotica are under intensive use by the community, the present study aimed to investigate the cytotoxicity effect of various organic extracts of the pods.…”

Determination of total phenolic and flavonoid content, antioxidant and cytotoxic activity of the methanol extract of Acacia nilotica pods

“…However, in vivo acute toxicity studies may be necessary to establish the safety level of the extract. Few studies conducted elsewhere have also studied the cytotoxicity effects of A. nilotica extracts against different mammalian cell lines (Kalaivani et al, 2011;Rasool et al, 2013;Manzo et al 2019). Van den Bout-van den Beukelet al (2008) reported highest cytotoxicity effects of the stem extracts of A. nilotica against Hep-G2 and HeLa human cell lines used as model.…”