Evaluación de toxicidad aguda y Sub-crónica de las hojas de berro (Nasturtium officinale)

Abstract

The existence of natural medicine is as ancient as man himself. Its use throughout time has demonstrated its safety and effectiveness to cure and relieve diseases and ailments. In this work, a plant known as watercress (Nasturtium officinale) was chosen, which has been used to treat problems such as renal failure, menstrual pains, hypoglycemia and even cancer. Due to its great consumption and to the fact that there aren’t any reports regarding its toxicity, the main goal of this research work is to analyze the toxic effect of the aforementioned plant. Toxicity tests were performed in accordance to the OECD-420 (acute toxicity), with doses of 5, 50, 500, 2000 and 5000 mg/Kg of body weight, and the OECD-407 (subchronic toxicity), with doses of 1000 and 5000 mg/Kg of body weight. No physical or behavioral changes occurred when single or repeated doses were administered. During the necropsy, a macroscopic analysis of the organs was performed, in which no visible damage could be observed. There was no unusual congestion, pus or coloration, and each organ had the appropriate weight. On the clinical biochemistry and hematologic tests, all parameters had values within the specified ranges. Lastly, a histopathologic study was performed, which helped to verify that the cells of the different analyzed tissues (kidney, liver, heart and lung) didn’t suffer any damage or structural modifications. Therefore, it is concluded that the extract is non-toxic and it is classified under category 5 of the globally accepted system for classification of chemical substances and mixtures (GHS). This classification corresponds to mixtures that have a relatively low or nonexistent acute toxicity. Based on these results, it can be affirmed that the watercress (Nasturtium officinale) leaf extract is a completely safe herbal medicine.

La existencia de la Medicina Natural es tan antigua como el hombre mismo, su uso a través del tiempo ha demostrado su inocuidad y eficacia para curar y aliviar enfermedades y padecimientos. En el presente trabajo se eligió una planta de nombre berro (Nasturtium officinale) la cual se ha utilizado para curar problemas renales, menstruales, depurativos, hipoglucemiantes e inclusive para el cáncer. Debido a su gran consumo y a que no existen reportes sobre su toxicidad se planteó el presente trabajo de investigación con el objetivo de analizar su efecto toxico. Se realizaron los ensayos de toxicidad de acuerdo a la OECD-420 (toxicidad aguda) con dosis de 5, 50, 500, 2000 y 5000 mg/Kg de peso corporal y OECD-407 (toxicidad sub-crónica) con dosis de 1000 y 5000 mg/Kg de peso corporal. Al administrar el extracto no se presentaron cambios físicos ni conductuales a dosis única ni a dosis repetidas.