Abstract

Carica papaya (CP) leaves are popularly used as food and have many traditional claims for herbal medicine. The leaf extract have been proven scientifically for their efficacy as wound healing and has protective effects against gastric damage in rats. However, toxicity study of the CP leaf extract is still lacking. The present study is to investigate the acute toxicity of CP leaf extract on Sprague Dawley rats at a dose of 2000 mg/kg body weight (BW). Sighting study was conducted in a stepwise procedure using the fixed doses of 5, 50, 300 and 2000 mg/kg BW. No signs of toxicity and no deaths were observed. Based on the sighting study, we selected a dose of 2000 mg/kg BW and were observed for 14 days. The study includes control and treatment group, each consisting of 5 female rats. The single oral dose of the CP leaf extract did not produce mortality or significant changes in the body weight, food and water consumption. The relative weights of the internal organs were normal. However, hemoglobin (HGB), hematocrit (HCT), red blood cell (RBC) and total protein were significantly increase indicating dehydration. Apart from triglyceride, other biochemistry parameters demonstrated no significant changes as compared to the control.

Key words: Carica papaya, leaf extract, acute toxicity.