ABSTRACT
This work studies the potential subacute toxicological effects of the aqueous extract of Baccharis genistelloides (AEBg) and demonstrates a new anti-arthritic therapeutic effect. The treatment of the collagen-induced arthritis (CIA) group with 4.2 mg/kg AEBg induced an important decrease (75%) in CIA severity in all animals, while the 42 mg/kg dose treated only 50% of animals. After AEBg treatment, no significant differences were observed in body weight, aspect, color and relative weight of liver, kidneys, thymus or lungs between CIA groups. CIA and healthy AEBg groups treated with both doses did not show genotoxic effects to liver and kidney cells by the Comet assay, compared to its own control group. The augmented AST in the CIA group, compared to healthy control one was regularized by the AEBg treatment with 4.2 mg/kg but not with 42 mg/kg. No other significant difference was found on serum biochemical parameters, as well as on spontaneous or stimulated lymphocyte proliferation between CIA groups. The treatment of healthy animals with AEBg 4.2 mg/kg did not change the aspect, color or relative weight of kidneys, liver or lungs but reduced the body weight, the thymus and popliteal lymph node (PLN) relative weight and serum glucose and triglyceride levels. Concluding, our results indicate an anti-arthritic effects of AEBg without liver and kidney subacute toxicity and hypoglycemic and hypotriglyceridemic actions on healthy animals.
Subject(s)
Arthritis, Experimental/drug therapy , Baccharis/chemistry , Mutagens/toxicity , Plant Extracts/toxicity , Plant Extracts/therapeutic use , Administration, Oral , Animals , Arthritis, Experimental/physiopathology , Aspartate Aminotransferases/blood , Cell Division/drug effects , Cell Survival/drug effects , Comet Assay , DNA/biosynthesis , DNA/drug effects , Disease Models, Animal , Dose-Response Relationship, Drug , Lymphocytes/drug effects , Lymphocytes/metabolism , Lymphocytes/pathology , Male , Mice , Mice, Inbred DBA , Plant Extracts/administration & dosageABSTRACT
The development of short term tests for measuring the mutagenic activity of genotoxic chemicals has been helpful in increasing security. Natural products from the flora are largely used in popular medicine. Using the Salmonella/mammalian-microsome assay, we investigated the genetic toxicity of two plant species popularly used in malaria treatment, Pothomorphe umbrellata and Pothomorphe peltata. The data show the absence of genetic toxicity for both plant species
Subject(s)
Plant Extracts/toxicity , Plants, Medicinal , Salmonella typhimurium/genetics , Malaria/drug therapy , Mutagenicity Tests , Plant Extracts/therapeutic useABSTRACT
Curvas de sobrevivencia a radiacao ultravioleta de culturas de diversas cepas de E. coli K 12, proficientes ou nao em sistemas de reparacao, foram obtidas apos carenciamento em glicose e em fatores indispensaveis a multiplicacao bacteriana. Estas curvas foram matematicamente ajustadas a modelo previamente descrito, o que permitiu estabelecer parametro para expressar o aumento de fotorresistencia induzida pelo carenciamento (SIRE). Os resultados obtidos reforcam a hipotese de estar o SIRE relacionado com o mecanismo de reparacao por excisao
