2017, Vol. 5, Issue 5, Part C

author(s)
Indres Moodley

abstract
Moringa oleifera is widely used as a source of food and in traditional medicine for the treatment of a variety of diseases. Since the dried powder is consumed by people almost daily it is important to evaluate the toxicity and safety in recognized animal models used for allopathic medicines. Sprague Dawley rats were given up to 2000mg/kg of the dried powder according to the acute Toxic class method described in the OECD Guideline 423. Animals were observed every hour for the first four hours and thereafter daily for 14 days for the animals in step1. The observation period for the step 2 animals were 7 days because no adverse reaction were seen in step 1 animals. This study indicated that oral administration of Moringa oleifera dried leaf powder up to 2000mg/kg showed no changes in clinical signs or gross pathology and that the LD₅₀ was greater than 2000mg/kg.