Preliminary toxicity study on the individual and combined effects of Citrullus colocynthis and Nerium oleander in rats.
The toxicity of diet containing 10% of Citrullus colocynthis fruits or 10% of Nerium oleander leaves or their 1:1 mixture (5%+5%) for rats treated for 6 weeks was determined. Dullness, ruffled hair, decreased body weight gains and feed efficiency, and enterohepatonephropathy characterised treatment with C. colocynthis and N. oleander given alone. Diarrhoea was a prominent sign of C. colocynthis poisoning. Organ lesions were accompanied by leucopenia, anaemia and alterations in serum AST, ALT and ALP activities and concentrations of total protein, albumin, urea, bilirubin and other serum constituents. Feeding the mixture of C. colocynthis and N. oleander caused more marked effects and death of rats.
Department of Pharmacognosy, College of Pharmacy, King Saud University, P.O. Box 2457, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
M A
MA
Al-Yahya
A H
AH
AL-Farhan
S E
SE
Adam
D000818:Animals; D019659:Asteraceae; D019662:Cucurbitaceae; D004347:Drug Interactions; D005638:Fruit; D008297:Male; D010936:Plant Extracts / Q000097:blood / Q000633:toxicity*; D018515:Plant Leaves; D011897:Random Allocation; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar
D010936:Plant Extracts