ABSTRACT
Background: Medicinal plants have been used as therapeutic agents since prehistoric era. Artocarpus altilis (Breadfruit)is used in African traditional medicine to treat hypertension with scanty information on its safety profile in animals.Objectives: This study was designed to evaluate the toxicological effects of oral administration of methanol extract of Artocarpus altilis (MEAA) in rats.Materials and Methods: Thirty male Wistar rats were divided into 6 groups of 5 animals each and were treated orally with corn oil (control), 100, 250, 500, 1000 and 2000 mg/kg of MEAA for twenty one days.Results: MEAA caused insignificant (p>0.05) changes in the activities of serum alanine and aspartate aminotransferases(ALT and AST) and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) relative to the control. Cardiac and hepatic AST (114.8±4.8 and(111.0±1.0) serum urea (1.1±0.2), creatinine (0.3±0.1), lactate dehydrogenase (17.3±5.8) and creatinine kinase (15.5±4.4)were significantly decreased (p<0.05) in rats treated with 2000 mg/kg of MEAA when compared to control [(134.8±5.8and 129.7±5.0), 2.94±0.3, 0.4±0.1, 38.5±13.3 and 41.3±2.9]. The MEAA significantly decreased (p<0.05) serum total cholesterol and triglyceride while high density lipoprotein- cholesterol (HDL-c) level was increased. Histopathological examination of liver, kidney and aorta slides from MEAA- treated rats showed little alteration from the control.Conclusions: The MEAA could be safe when used over a long period for therapeutic purposes