Toxicological assessment of rats administered graded doses of
trona revealed significant reduction in weight gain of rats administered
1500 mg/kg and losses in weights of rats administered
5000 mg/kg (Table 2). This indicates that at these doses, this additive
may be toxic especially when administered on long term
basis.
Acute toxicity studies (Table 3) revealed no mortality and no
visible sign of toxicity. Acute toxicity is toxicity elicited as a result of
short term exposure to a toxicant. The LD50 was not calculated
because therewas no mortality at 5000 mg/kg dose level indicating
that it is relatively safe under short term exposure. However, acute
toxicity data are of limited clinical application since cumulative
toxic effects do occur even at low doses. Sub-acute and chronic
toxicity are useful in evaluating the safety profile of additives.
The enzymatic activity of ALT, AST and ALP were studied to
evaluate liver malfunctions (Table 4). Significant increases in ALT,
AST and ALP activities were observed in the test rats at all dose
levels, except at the 10 mg/kg dose level compared with control.