Acute toxicological effects of extracts of Melia azedarach (Meliaceae) in rats (Rattus norvegicus), mice (Mus musculus) and Artemia salina / Efeitos toxicológicos agudos de extratos de Melia azedarach (MELIACEAE) em ratos (Rattus novergicus), camundongos (Mus musculus) e Artemia salina

AUTOR(ES)
DATA DE PUBLICAÇÃO

2010

RESUMO

The revival of research involving botanical insecticides owes itself to the need to make available new products devoid of environmental degradation, with lesser residual affects and development of resistant insects to synthetic products. Phytochemicals from the family Meliaceae have been considered preeminent pesticides. Among the Maliaceae, one of the plants that stands out is Melia azedarach. Diverse studies report the effects of this plant on insects of importance in public health, agriculture and livestock sectors. In spite of M. azedarach being considered a medicinal plant, its use as a natural insecticide needs to be cautious because the plant contains various toxic components to mammals. The objective of this work was to verify the toxicity of extract from unripe fruits of M. azedarach against Wistar rats, Swiss mice and Artemia salina, as well as dermal and ocular irritation in rabbits. Unripe fruits were harvested and processed at the Chemistry Department of UFG. For the acute toxicity test, fruit extracts were administered by gavage at doses of 300 and 2000 mg/kg, in rats and mice of both sexes. For evaluation, animals were observed both for the presence of clinical signs or their death for 14 days after the administration, afterwards all the animals underwent euthanasia and their organs collected for use in histopathology analysis. Data on ration and water consumption, weight gain and weight of the organs were also analysed. Dermal and ocular irritation was evaluated on rabbits using a crude extract on the skin and on the conjunctive sac. The bioassay with A. salina involved eight repeats in the following dilutions, 125, 250, 500 and 1000 μg/ml and an untreated control. The dishes containing the groups were incubated in the dark at 25 C and readings taken after 24 hours, by counting the number of surviving individuals. The acute toxicity results obtained demonstrated that the M. azedarach extract did not induce mortality or clinical alteration, just as there was no change in weight gain, ration consumption and organs weight when the treatments and controls were compared. From histopathology analyses, some alterations were detected especially in the liver and lungs, however these lesions were common to the treatments and controls. The assay done in rabbits demonstrated that the extract was not irritative to the skin and eye. The LC50 of the M. azedarach extract was 669 ug/ml, as obtained from the A. salina assay, the extract being considered moderately toxic to this microcrustacean. In spite of these results to have produced evidence that this plants extract is safe to mammals, further studies such as modes of action of this plant, sub-acute and chronic toxicity assays, effects on specific organisms and on the environment, are necessary towards the definition of this plant as being of low risk to the environment, domestic animals and to man.

ASSUNTO(S)

cinamomo camundongos rats toxicidade mice cinnamon toxicity tecnologia de alimentos ratos

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