Acute oral toxicity, dermal irritation and eye irritation study of eclipta alba aqueous extract in sprague dawley rats and newzealand white rabbits

Eclipta alba is used as a medicinal herb in many herbal preparations including most of hair oils produced in India. The E. alba extracts are part ofmany Ayurvedic/herbal medicines with hepatoprotective, anti-diabetic, anti-inflammatory and anti-microbial properties. Aqueous extract,hydroalcoholic extracts and methanolic extract are reported to possess hepatoprotective, anti-diabetic, anti-inflammatory and anti-microbialproperties. Studies in Burkina Faso have demonstrated that soaking seeds with 2.5% E. alba aqueous extract for 6 h improved seed quality parametersfollowed by increased yield in sorghum. Accordingly, it has been proposed to use E. alba for seed treatment on a larger scale. Hence it was relevant totest the toxicity of E. alba. The purpose of this study was to test the acute oral toxicity, dermal irritation and eye irritation of aqueous extract of E.alba dried leaves in Sprague Dawley rats and New Zealand white rabbits. The acute toxicity studies were carried out based on OECD guidelines 423.The highest dose administered at 2000 mg/kg body weight did not produce mortality or changes in general behaviour of the test animals indicatingsafety of the oral administration of aqueous E. alba extract in Sprague Dawley rats. The acute dermal irritation study in Newzealand white rabbits wasinvestigated according to OECD test guideline No. 404. The E. alba fine powder applied to the intact left flank of female rabbit did not elicit any skinreactions at the application site of animal at any of the observation time points and hence ‘Non Irritant’ to the rabbit skin. The acute eye irritationstudy on Newzealand white rabbits did not cause corneal opacity, iris and conjunctivae in any of the treated animals and did not cause staining of thetreated eye and is termed as ‘not irritating’ to the rabbit eyes / eye mucosa. The toxicological studies prove that the E. alba aqueous extract are safe tobe used as seed treatment and can be handled safely by humans under field conditions.