Subacute toxicity
According to OECD TG407 (OECD, 2001b), rats were
divided into 3 groups of 12 animals (6 male and 6 female). The
EJ-ext was administered to the first group of rats at the dose of
1000 mg/kg/day for 14 days, whereas an equal volume of vehicle
was given to the control group. In order to access reversibility,
the EJ-ext at the dose of 1000 mg/kg was given once daily to
the third group of rats for 14 days, and kept for another 14 days
post-treatment. The toxic manifestation such as signs of toxicity,
mortality and the body weight changes were mornitored daily.
Rats were anesthetized with ether on day 15. The heparinized
blood samples were taken for determining complete blood count,
red blood cell count, platelet count and red cell indicies. The
serum from non-heparinized blood was carefully collected for
blood chemistry and enzyme analysis.
All rats were sacrificed after the blood collection. The internal
organs and some tissues were weighed to determine relative
organs weights and observed for gross lesions. All tissues were
preserved in 10% buffered formadehyde solution for histological
examination.