Abstract:
Abelmoschus moschatus Medik. (family: Malvaceae) has a long history of being used as a folk medicine in Sri Lanka. Despite the
therapeutic use of this plant in traditional medicine, leaves of A. moschatus have not been subjected to scientific evaluation of
toxicity/adverse effects in vivo. *us, the present study was aimed to assess the acute and 28-day repeated-dose oral toxic effects of
hexane (55 mg/kg), ethyl acetate (75 mg/kg), butanol (60 mg/kg), and aqueous (140 mg/kg) leaf extracts of A. moschatus in Wistar
rats. Furthermore, identification of phytochemical constituents and determination of in vitro total antioxidant activity of the
selected leaf extracts of A. moschatus were carried out. Repeated-dose oral administration of hexane and aqueous plant extracts
produced no significant changes in the hematological profile and in selected biochemical parameters compared to the untreated
healthy rats (p > 0.05). *e administration of ethyl acetate and butanol extracts resulted in significant changes in some of the
hematological parameters (p < 0.05), whereas biochemical parameters were not changed (p > 0.05). No significant changes in the
relative organ weight of treated rats were observed (p > 0.05) except in the kidneys of Wistar rats treated with the ethyl acetate
extract of A. moschatus (p < 0.05). Normal morphology with no signs of hemorrhages, necrosis, or inflammatory cell infiltrations
was observed in the vital organs selected during the assessment of histopathology on H and E-stained tissue sections upon the
treatment of selected extracts. Alkaloids were absent in the selected leaf extracts excluding the health risk for harmful alkaloids.
*e highest total antioxidant activity was reported in the butanol extract. In conclusion, the hexane and aqueous extracts of A.
moschatus were completely nontoxic, whereas butanol and ethyl acetate extracts showed statistically significant changes in some
hematological parameters and in relative organ weight of kidneys in healthy Wistar rats
