Evaluation of 28-day repeated doses oral toxicity of essential oil from Psidium glaziovianum Kiaersk leaves on various biological parameters in Swiss mice

ABSTRACT

Only a small number of the many medicinally important species in the genus Psidium L. have had their safety assessed. Psidium glaziovianum, a plant native to Brazil, is reported to exert antinociceptive and anti-inflammatory effects; however, there are no apparent reports of long-term safety following administering of repeated doses. The aim of this study was to examine the effects of 28-day oral of treatment at 250, 500 or 1,000 mg/kg Psidium glaziovianum essential oil (PgEO) on behavioral and physiological parameters in male and female Swiss mice. First, PgEO was chemically characterized by gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The following parameters were examined: motor activity, body temperature, blood glucose, urine, hematology, biochemistry, histology, and oxidative stress. Characterization of PgEO revealed 48 components which were dominated by sesquiterpenes 1,8-cineol (24.29%), α-pinene (19.73%) and β-pinene (17.31%). Data showed that PgEO treatment in mice increased activities of antioxidant enzymes superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT) without markedly affecting body weight, hematological or biochemical parameters, as well as water or food consumption. Administration of PgEO in repeated daily dosages over 28 days did not significantly alter exploratory or locomotor activities. Based upon our findings, PgEO administration daily for 28 days, exhibited low toxicity and absence of effects on the nervous system. Data demonstrated that PgEO produced hypoglycemic and antioxidant actions which need to be considered in safety assessment.

KEYWORDS:

• Behavioural assessment
• Caatinga
• oxidative stress
• repeated dose toxicity
• subacute toxicity
• Swiss mice

Acknowledgments

The authors express their gratitude to the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES; Finance Code 001) and to the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) for research grants. We thank the Paus dóia community for their welcome in collecting botanical material.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/15287394.2023.2246497

Additional information

Funding

Funding was provided by Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq), Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES; Finance Code 001) and the Fundação de Amparo à Ciência e Tecnologia do Estado de Pernambuco (FACEPE) BFP-0038-2.08/23.