Toxicological Evaluation of the Aqueous Extract of Caralluma europaea and Its Immunomodulatory and Inflammatory Activities

Background: Caralluma europaea (CE) has been studied for its chemical constituents, and no information is available on its toxicity or its pharmacological activities. Objective: To determine the toxicity of an aqueous extract of CE stems in vitro and in vivo after acute and subchronic oral gavages in Swiss albino's mice and its immunomodulatory and inflammatory activities. Materials and Methods: The extract was administrated in single oral dose at 5 g/kg body weight for the acute toxicity test and by gavages daily at doses of 1, 2.5, or 5 g/kg for 30 consecutive days for the subchronic toxicity test. The immunomodulatory activities and inflammatory activities were tested by the evaluation of hemagglutination antibodies (HAs) titers and delayed-type hypersensitivity (DTH) response. Results: For the dose of 1 g/kg, no visible toxic effects were observed. However, for the higher doses, clinical observations of toxicity were noted after 1 week of treatment. This was confirmed by the biochemical parameters values and the histology analyses of the spleen, liver, and kidney tissues. The high cellular mortality rate in vitro when treated with CE extract confirmed their toxicity potential. There was also increase of “HA titer” and “DTH” response in mice treated with nontoxic dose of CE (1 g/kg) compared to control group. This immune activity was confirmed by the high number of lymphocytes infiltrates noted in the different organs. Conclusion: We conclude that CE at the dose up of 1 g/kg produced toxic effect in mice that induced an immune inflammatory reaction.