Avaliação toxicológica do extrato bruto hidroalcoólico de Himatanthus drasticus (Apocynaceae) em ratas em gestação

Abstract

The herbal medicine is gaining more space in the treatment of diseases, both human and animals, many plants being used without knowledge of their true effectiveness and causing any health problems. The Himatanthus drasticus is used in folk medicine to combat fever, inflammation, cancer, healing and worming. This study focuses on the effects of administration of crude hydroalcoholic extract (EBHA) H. drasticus during pregnancy in rats. For the experiment were used rats (Rattus norvegicus), male and female Wistar, where females in the treated group (TG) were administered 250 mg/kg EBHA H. drasticus by oral gavage from the 6th to the 19th day of gestation and the control group (CG) was given filtered water using the same route and at the same gestation period. The total consumption of water and food, and total weight gain of mothers showed no significant difference in the TG with the CG. There has been presented no sign of toxicity during the administration of breast EBHA. The maternal organ weights did not differ between groups. We evaluated the litter weight and length of fetuses in each group, where the statistical test is not got no significant difference between TG and CG. The female reproductive performance of the TG suffered no interference with the administration of EBHA, and showed no histological changes in the organ analyzed. Concerning to bone, there were no changes that characterize fetal malformations.