title: A Pilot Study on Single-dose Toxicity Testing of Hominis placenta Pharmacopuncture in Sprague-Dawley Rats.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This study was performed to analyze the toxicity and to find the lethal dose of the test substance Hominis placenta pharmacopuncture when used as a single-dose in 6 week old, male and female Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats.
  
  
  METHODS
  All experiments were conducted at Biotoxtech (Chungwon, Korea), an institution authorized to perform non clinical studies, under the regulations of Good Laboratory Practice (GLP). SD rats were chosen for the pilot study. Doses of Hominis placenta pharmacopuncture extracts, 0.125, 0.25 and 0.5 mL, were administered to the experimental group, and 0.5 mL doses of normal saline solution were administered to the control group. This study was conducted under the approval of the Institutional Animal Ethics Committee.
  
  
  RESULTS
  No deaths or abnormalities occurred in any of the groups. Also, no significant changes in body weights were observed among the groups, and no significant differences in hematology/biochemistry, necropsy, and histopathology results were noted. Hematologically, some changes in the male rats in two experimental groups were observed, but those changes had no clinical or toxicological meaning because they were not dose dependent. Histopathological tests on the injected parts showed cell infiltration in the male rats in one of the experimental groups; however, that result was due to spontaneous generation and had no toxicological meaning. Therefore, this study showed that Hominis placenta pharmacopuncture had no effect on the injected parts in terms of clinical signs, body weight, hematology, clinical chemistry, and necropsy.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  As a result of single-dose tests of the test substance Hominis placenta pharmacopuncture in 4 groups of rats, the lethal dose for both males and females exceeded 0.5 mL/animal. Therefore, the above findings suggest that treatment with Hominis placenta pharmacopuncture is relatively safe. Further studies on this subject are needed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Acupuncture & Moxibustion Meridian & Acupoint, College of Oriental Medicine, Dong-Eui University, Busan, Korea.
authors.forename: Yoo-Hwan
authors.initials: YH
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Department of Acupuncture & Moxibustion Meridian & Acupoint, College of Oriental Medicine, Dong-Eui University, Busan, Korea.
authors.forename: Hyun-Min
authors.initials: HM
authors.lastname: Yoon
authors.affiliation: Department of Acupuncture & Moxibustion Meridian & Acupoint, College of Oriental Medicine, Dong-Eui University, Busan, Korea.
authors.forename: Kyung-Jeon
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Jang
authors.affiliation: Department of Acupuncture & Moxibustion Meridian & Acupoint, College of Oriental Medicine, Dong-Eui University, Busan, Korea.
authors.forename: Cheol-Hong
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Kim
keywords: Hominis placenta; aqua acupuncture; herbal acupuncture; pharmacopuncture; sprague-dawley rats; toxicity test