Acute Toxicity Study of Aqueous Extract of Coccinia indica (Roots)

Sourabh S. Baghel¹, Sonal Dangi¹, Prashant Soni¹, Priya Singh² and Yogesh Shivhare¹*

¹Department of Pharmacognosy, RKDF College of Pharmacy, Bhopal (M.P.), India

²Department of Pharmacognosy, Lakshminarain College of Pharmacy, Bhopal (M.P.), India

*Corresponding Author E-mail: yogesh_aot@rediffmail.com

ABSTRACT:

The Present Study was planned to assess the acute toxicity of Coccinia indica roots. Rats were orally administrated single dose of 100, 500 and 1000mg/kg of aqueous extract of Coccinia indica. Mortality, signs of toxicity, body weight, food consumption and gross findings were observed for 07 days post treatment of Coccinia indica extract. In addition, no significant differences were noticed in the body and organ weights between the control and treated groups. These results state that aqueous extract of Coccinia indica is toxicologically safe by oral administration.

KEYWORDS: Acute toxicity, Coccinia Indica, Roots

INTRODUCTION:

Medicinal plants have occupied a vital place in the socio-cultural, development of rural people of India (Patil et al., 2010). Coccinia indica (family- Cucurbitaceae) is perennial, scandent or prostrate plant which is commonly known as bimbu in bengali, kova in malyalam, kundru in punjabi, kundaru in urdu and bhimb in hindi. Leaves are 5-10 cm, long and broad, bright green above, paler beneath, studded and sometimes rough with papillae. Flowers are peduncles and subfiliform. The fresh tab root is thick, tuberous, long tapering, more or less tortuous with a few fibrous rootlets attached to it. Roots are flexible, soft and break with a fibrous fracture. The cork is composed of rows of cells. Fruits are fusiform-ellipsoid, slightly beaked, 2.5-5 by 1.3-2.5 cm marked when immature with white streaks, bright scarlet when fully riped. Seeds are obovoid, rounded at the apex, slightly papillose, much compressed and yellowish grey [Kirtikar & Basu]. This plant is traditionally used in various diseases like psoriasis, ringworm, itching, small pox, skin diseases, ulcer, scabies, diabetes, asthma, bronchitis, dysentry, vomiting, cough and cold. Pharmacological studies on Coccinia indica demonstrated antimicrobial (Zeenat et al., 2009), antilitihic (Jayaweera, 1980) and antioxidant (Venkateshwaran et al., 2003) activities. The purpose of the present study is to investigate acute oral toxicity of aqueous extract of Coccinia indica in rats.

MATERIALS AND METHOD:

Collection of Plant material:

Roots of Coccinia indica were collected from the locality of Anuppur (M.P.) India, during the month of September, 2010 and authenticated by Department of Pharmacognosy, RKDF College of Pharmacy, Bhopal. The voucher specimen is preserved for future reference.

Preparation of extract:

Collected roots of Coccinia indica were air-dried under shade at room temperature and then crushed into coarse powder. This powder was extracted with water by soxhlet and the solvent was removed by evaporator. On removal of the solvent, a brownish black colour residue was obtained. The yield was found to be 2.35 gm.

Experimental Animals:

Swiss albino mice were used. They were housed in groups in stainless steel cages and kept under standard environmental conditions. They were given pelleted food and drinking water ad libitum.

The mice were acclimatized to the laboratory conditions for at least five days prior to commencement of the experiments. The institutional animal ethics committee approved the experimental protocol. (Reg. No. 780/CPCSEA)

Acute toxicity study:

Acute oral toxicity test was performed as per OECD-423 guidelines. All the animals were randomly distributed into one control group and three treated groups, containing five animals per group.

Groups 1, 2 and 3 were orally administered 100, 500 and 1000 mg/kg body weight aqueous extract following the method of Lorke (Lorke et al., 1983). The control group received vehicle alone. The animals were observed continuously for first 72 hours and 7 days for any signs of behavioral changes, toxicity, mortality and body weight.

Statistical analysis:

The result were express as Mean ± SEM. Statistical analysis was carried out using student-t test. P<0.01 was considered statistically significant.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION:

Experimental screening method is imperative in order to establish the safety and efficacy of traditional and herbal products and also to set up the active components of the herbal products (Mythilypriya et al., 2007). In the acute toxicity test of the aqueous extract of Coccinia indica, there was no mortality or any signs of behavioral changes or toxicity observed after oral administration of extract up to the dose level of 2000mg/kg body weight in mice. The body and organ weight changes of control and treated groups were shown in Fig. 1 and 2. There were no significant differences in the body weight and organ weight between the control and treated groups. The effect of aqueous extract of Coccinia indica on the hematological parameters is presented in Fig 3. All the hematological parameters in treated groups were in normal limits.

CONCLUSION:

The results of present study have shown that acute administration of aqueous extract of Coccinia indica may be safe as the LD₅₀ could not be determined at the doses given. This study is not a complete toxicity study. It emphasizes the call for carrying out toxicity studies even in natural plant products and drug of indigenous medicinal system.

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