The oral subacute toxicological activity of hydroalcoholic extract of Moringa oleifera Lam. (Moringaceae) growing in South West of Burkina Faso in Wistar rats

Acute and Subacute toxicity investigations were carried out to evaluate the safety of M. oleifera leaf used in the treatment of various diseases and in nutrition. Five groups of 10 rats of both sex (5rats/sex) were constituted. The first group served as control and received distilled water 10mL/kg/ day while groups II, III, and IV respectively received orally and daily the ethanolic extract of Moringa oleifera at doses 200, 400 and 800mg/kg bw for 4 weeks. The last group (V) considered as satellite group received also received the EEM 800mg/kg daily and orally for 4 weeks. At the end of the test period (4 weeks), the animals of this last group were observed without any treatment for 2 weeks again before their sacrifice in order to study the persistence or the disappearance of possible toxic effects of the extract. The rat was segregated according to gender and housed in cages of 5 rats. In Subacute toxicity investigated with Wistar rats, no mortality was recorded during the experimentation period. Moreover, there was no significant change in weight gain, relative organ weight, or hematological and serum chemical parameters except in a group of female animals where we noticed a reversible decrease in serum ALAT level (at 400mg/kg), total cholesterol (at 400mg/kg) and LDL level (at 800mg/kg) compared to ED group. The histopathological examination had shown some differences between the treated group and the control group that cannot be considered treatment-related.