Twenty-four-week oral dosing toxicities of Herba Siegesbeckiae in rats
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(2020) 20:341
BMC Complementary Medicine and Therapies
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Open Access
Twenty-four-week oral dosing toxicities of Herba Siegesbeckiae in rats Jia-Ying Wu1,2†, Yuen-Cheung Chan2†, Hui Guo2, Ying-Jie Chen2, Yu-Xi Liu2, Hua Yi3 and Zhi-Ling Yu1,2*
Abstract Background: Herba Siegesbeckiae (HS), the dried aerial parts of Siegesbeckia orientalis L., S. pubescens Makino, or S. glabrescens Makino, is traditionally used for treating chronic diseases in China. However, there is no information about the chronic toxicity of HS. The objective of this study is to evaluate the 24-week oral dosing toxicities of HS aqueous extract (HSE) in rats. Methods: S. orientalis-originated HS was reflux-extracted with distilled water. Sprague–Dawley rats were randomly divided into four groups, with 10 males and 10 females in each group. The rats were intragastrically administered with HSE at 5, 1.67 and 0.56 g/kg (experimental groups) or an equal volume of distilled water (control group), 6 days a week, for 24 weeks. The high dose of HSE (5 g/kg) was its maximum tolerated dose. Body weight was recorded every 2 days during the experimental period. Chemical, hematological and histopathological parameters, as well as organ weights, were measured at the end of the experiment. Results: Decreased body weight gain; increased liver and lung relative weights; histopathological alterations in liver and lung tissues; elevated serum levels of alkaline phosphatase, aspartate aminotransferase, alanine aminotransferase and lactate dehydrogenase were found after HSE treatments. In liver tissues, HSE treatment upregulated levels of three pro-inflammatory cytokines: IL-6, IL-1β and TNF-α. In lung tissues, HSE treatment caused oxidative stress and activated mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs). Conclusion: Long-term oral administration of HSE caused toxicities in rats evidenced by decreased body weight gain, as well as liver and lung damage. Treatment-induced oxidative stress, inflammation and MAPK activation are involved in HSE’s toxicities. Caution should be taken when using HS to treat chronic diseases. Keywords: Herba Siegesbeckiae, Hepatotoxicity, Pulmonary toxicity, Chronic toxicity, Rats
Background Herba Siegesbeckiae (HS), the dried aerial parts of Siegesbeckia orientalis L., S. pubescens Makino, or S. glabrescens Makino, was first recorded as a low-toxicity herb in “Xin Xiu Ben Cao” issued in 659 A.D. (Tang Dynasty of China) [1]. This herb, alone or in combination with * Correspondence: [email protected] † Jia-Ying Wu and Yuen-Cheung Chan contributed equally to this work. 1 Research and Development Centre for Natural Health Products, HKBU Shenzhen Research and Continuing Education, Shenzhen, China 2 Centre for Cancer and Inflammation Research, School of Chinese Medicine, Hong Kong Baptist University, Kowloon Tong 999077, Hong Kong Full list of author information is available at the end of the article
other herbs, is commonly used for managing chronic diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and hypertension by traditional Chin
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