acute toxicity tests with hydroethanolic extracts of cashew have also found minimum lethal dose values in Swiss mice and Wis- tar rats greater than 2000 mg/kg . The median lethal dose value in mice for tannins from the trunk bark of Anacardium occidentale was 944.1 mg/kg b.w. and 10% death occurred with highest dose of 4 g/kg
The acute toxicity tests showed that the most important alter- ations were in females, which increased their water consumption and AST serum levels. The female CNO group showed elevated levels of ALT compared with Ctrl (approximately 43% more than Ctrl). Cashew nut oil contains 80% of oleic acid and an insignificant amount of anacardic acids (0.0001 mg/mL).
According to Melo et al. ,cute pre-clinical toxicity of dry bark extract from Anacardium occidentale L. increased AST and ALT 14 days after animals received a single 5 g/kg dose; however, 21 days after exposure, hepatic enzymes levels were normal. Elevated ALT and AST serum levels, combined with histopathological evi- dence, are used to identify acute hepatocellular injury, which is essential for investigating and recognizing chemical-induced liver toxicity
Slightly decreased levels of urea were observed in females that received AAs compared with animals in the CNO group; however, the values were within the range of biochemical reference values (51.2 ± 15.92) for BALB/c In our study, no alterations in liver or kidney morphology were observed.
In males, the decreased in the lung weight/body weight ratio treated with AAs compared to males in the other groups were not expected, since there were no alterations in lungs histology. This difference may be explained by the decrease in absolute weight of the lungs and to the increase in absolute body weight in the males of the AAs group.