Single dose oral toxicity of the Lotus(Nelumbo Nucifera) root ethanol extract in ICR mice

Abstract

Lotus(Nelumbo Nucifera) root has been used as a familiar edible vegetable in east Asia for thousands of years. This study was performed to evaluate the single dose oral toxicity of lotus root ethanol extract(LREE) in male and female ICR mice. In order to observe the 50% lethal dose (LD50), 0(control), 2000 and 5000 mg/kg of LREE were orally administered to 12 male and 12 female ICR mice. After single oral administration of LREE to ICR mice, we monitored number of the death, clinical signs, changes of body weight during 14 days. Compared with the control group, we could not find any toxic signs in the mortalities, clinical signs, body weight changes in all treated groups (2000 and 5000 mg/kg). In addition, there were no abnormal changes in the organ weight and no pathological changes in macroscopic examination at necropsy. These results indicate that the single oral administration of LREE may have no side toxic effect at the dose of 5000 mg/kg body weight for both female and male ICR mice and LD50 value of LREE may be over than 5000 mg/kg body weight. This research was supported by the Globalization of Korean Foods R&D program, funded by MIFAFF, Republic of Korea