Chronic Toxicity of Yahom Navagoth Extract

Abstract

A Thai traditional recipe called yahom navogoth, has been used in the treatment of circulatory disorder symptoms. The recipe comprises 54 herbal plants and Borneol camphor. Acute toxicity of yahom navogoth
extract (NGE) was assessed in 50 ICR mice randomly divided into five groups of 10 mice each as follows: A control group was given distilled water orally and four experimental groups were orally administered with
NGE at doses of 2, 4, 8 and 16 g/kg, respectively. NGE at doses of 2 and 4 g/kg did not cause any acute toxic signs nor lethality, whereas doses of 8 and 16 mg/kg produced 10 and 70 percent mortality, respectively. Chronic
toxicity study of yahom navogoth extract was performed in 144 Wistar rats divided into six groups of 24 rats each (12 males and 12 females). The control group was given distilled water and the five experimental groups
were administered yahom navagoth extract orally at doses of 10, 100, 500, 1000 and 1000 mg/kg/day, respectively, for six months. The extract doses given to the animals were approximately equivalent to 1, 10, 50, 100
and 100 times larger than the human therapeutic dose. The last group was used for a recovery study after two weeks discontinuation of the highest dose. The result revealed that NGE did not affect body weight, food
consumption, behavior and the general health of the animals. Male rats receiving NGE at 1000 mg/kg/day had a significant increase in total leukocytes and female rats receiving the same dose had a significant increase
in platelet counts. However, these hematological values tended to decrease after withdrawal of the extract. NGE did not cause any abnormality of clinical chemistry values. The incidence of histopathological alterations
in the NGE-treated groups did not show any dose dependence with the extract. In conclusion, yahom navagoth extract did not cause chronic toxicity in the Wistar rats.