Toxicological Evaluation of Gum (Galactomannans) Isolated from Senna tora Seeds

Abstract

Seed gums possess excellent emulsifying, suspending, binding, thickening stabilizing and water-holding properties. Therefore they are used in various pharmaceutical dosage forms like tablets, syrups, suspensions, lotions, ointments and for sustained drug release systems. Gum derived from the seeds of Senna tora L. is common herbaceous annual occurring weed throughout the India. The present investigation reports preliminary phytochemical screening and toxicological evaluation of the isolated seed gum from the Senna tora. The acute toxicity study was carried out in adult albino rats by “fixed dose” method. The sub-acute toxicity study was carried out for 28 days in wistar albino rats. All the Animals used were observed for clinical signs, physical abnormalities, changes in body weight and pre-terminal deaths. Laboratory investigations such as hematology and clinical chemistry were performed at sacrifice and the data were statistically analyzed. Based on the results of the acute oral toxicity on the polysaccharide in Wistar rats, it may be concluded that the LD50 of the Senna tora gum is greater than 2000 mg/kg. In the sub-acute toxicity study, the gum treated groups did not show any sign of toxicity after getting treated at dose levels of 500, 1000 and 1500 mg/kg daily for 28 days.