Cytotoxic activity, acute and sub-acute toxicity of methanolic root extract of Corrigiola telephiifolia pourr

C. telephiifolia is an herbal plant commonly used in Moroccan folk medicine for treatment of many disorders. In the present study, we investigated cytotoxic activity by an in vitro assay system of growth inhibition against a human cancer cell line (HeLa), the results demonstrated that CH2Cl2 extract show a moderate cytotoxicity. The acute and sub-acute toxicity of the methanolic extract was evaluated. For acute toxicity, a single oral administration was performed at a dose of 2g/kg body weight (6 females, 6 males mice). The study of sub-acute toxicity was evaluated by daily oral (5 females, 5 males) with doses from 10 to 500mg/kg/day for 45 days. No mortality or signs of toxicity were observed in the acute study. Mice were analyzed for final body and organ weights, necropsy, and blood chemical and histopathological parameters. In the 40 day study in mice the extract at 10, 50mg/kg/day showed no toxicity, mortality, macroscopic or microscopic change of internal organs or tissues in comparison with the control group. The extracts of C. telephiifolia showed a cytotoxic activity with low toxicity. They are good candidates for further investigations in the fields of new anticancer drugs discovery.