Acute and Sub-acute Oral Toxicity Studies of an Aqueous Extract of Ocimum gratissimum (Lamiaceae) in the Mouse Mus Musculus

Ocimum gratissimum is a medicinal plant that is widely used in the world, and has multiple uses in traditional medicine, including the treatment of epilepsy in children. The objective of this study was to evaluate the acute and subacute toxicity of decoction of Ocimum gratissimum leaves in Mus musculus mice. For the acute toxicity test, a single dose of 50, 300 and 2000 mg/kg of extract was administered orally to randomly selected to mice; then they were observed for 14 days. In the subacute study, the extract was administered orally daily to mice of both sexes at doses of 250, 500 and 1000 mg/kg body weight during the 28 days of the experiment. finally, Body weight was measured weekly, haematological, biochemical and histological analysis were performed. The aqueous extract of Ocimum gratissimum did not cause any mortality or significant changes in relative animal and organ weights during the acute and subacute tests at all doses. Few significant changes in food and water intake were observed at the dose of 1000 mg/kg. The highest dose of aqueous extract (2000 mg/kg) administered orally in the acute toxicity did not induce mortality. There were no significant changes in haematological parameters in the different batches treated. Therefore, the oral aqueous extract of Ocimum gratissimum did not produce any adverse side effects compared to the control group (distiller water) in the acute and subacute study. We can therefore conclude that Ocimum gratissimum can be considered safe in oral administration at the dose tested since it did not cause lethality or undesirable effects in general behaviour in white mice.