title: Acute oral toxicity of methanolic seed extract of Cassia fistula in mice.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Cassia fistula is widely used in traditional medicine to treat various types of ailments. The evaluation of toxic properties of C. fistula is crucial when considering public health protection because exposure to plant extracts can result in undesirable effects on consumers. Hence, in this study the acute oral toxicity of C. fistula seeds extract was investigated in mice.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Oral administration of crude extract at the highest dose of 5000 mg/kg resulted in no mortalities or evidence of adverse effects, implying that C. fistula in nontoxic. Throughout 14 days of the treatment no changes in behavioural pattern, clinical sign and body weight of mice in both control and treatment groups. Also there were no any significant elevations observed in the biochemical analysis of the blood serum. Further, histopathological examination revealed normal architecture and no significant adverse effects observed on the kidney, heart, liver, lung and spleen.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Overall, the results suggest that, the oral administration of C. fistula methanolic seeds extract did not produce any significant toxic effect in mice. Hence, the extract can be utilized for pharmaceutical formulations.
authors.affiliation: Biological Program, School of Distance Education, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Minden 11800, Penang, Malaysia.
authors.forename: Subramanion L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Jothy
authors.forename: Zuraini
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zakaria
authors.forename: Yeng
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Yee Ling
authors.initials: YL
authors.lastname: Lau
authors.forename: Lachimanan Yoga
authors.initials: LY
authors.lastname: Latha
authors.forename: Sreenivasan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sasidharan
mesh_terms: D000284:Administration, Oral; D000825:Animal Structures / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000473:pathology; D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000187:drug effects*; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000097:blood; D001835:Body Weight / Q000187:drug effects; D002366:Cassia / Q000737:chemistry*; D005260:Female; D008297:Male; D000432:Methanol / Q000737:chemistry*; D051379:Mice; D010936:Plant Extracts / Q000633:toxicity*; D012639:Seeds / Q000737:chemistry*; D023382:Toxicity Tests, Acute
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; D010936:Plant Extracts; D000432:Methanol