Estudo toxicológico pré-clínico do extrato aquoso e do óleo essencial das folhas de Alpinia zerumbet (Pers.) Burtt & Smith

Abstract

Alpinia zerumbet, known ordinarily as colony in Northwestern Brazil, is a medicinal plant widely used in popular medicine as tea and infusions for the treatment of intestinal and cardiovascular illnesses, such as hypertension. Due to the high levels of consumption of such infusions, we have sought to evaluate the toxicological and genotoxicological profile of the tea and essential oil made from A. zerumbet leaves. This study has been evaluated by short term in vivo and in vitro trials. We initially evaluated the cytotoxicity and the hemolytic effect in vitro; however, there was no toxic response. The DL50 found for the tea was of >5 mg/Kg, which demonstrates that the active principles of the tea present low toxicity. The genotoxicity trials were carried out in vivo. The animal received treatment orally, with three doses of the tea (2 g/Kg, 3,5 g/Kg and 5 g/Kg) and with a dosage of 400 mg/Kg of the essential oil. Peripheral blood and bone marrow were collected after 24 and 48 hours. In the comet trial no high level comets were detected and the statistical analyses demonstrate a P<0,01 (significance: P<0,05) for all samples when compared to the positive control and a P<0,05 (significance: P<0,05) for samples in relation to the negative control. In the micronucleus test, all doses of the tea and essential oil presented a statistically significant difference in relation to cyclofosfamide, with a P < 0.001 and a P > 0.05 compared with the negative control (significance: P<0,05). All those results indicate that the tea and essential oil made from A. zerumbet leaves do not present cytotoxic or genotoxic action in the tested models.