Volume: 47 Issue: 3
In-vivo safety profile of Withania somnifera in Charles Foster rats
Year: 2025, Page: 162-167, Doi: https://doi.org/10.62029/jmaps.v47i3.kumari
Received: Nov. 3, 2025 Accepted: Feb. 19, 2026 Published: May 18, 2026
Acute and sub-acute toxicity experiments with aqueous extracts of the leaf and root of Withania somnifera were carried out in male and female Charles Foster (CF) rats, including HPLC fingerprinting of the extracts. In an acute toxicity study with the extracts at 2000 mg/kg body weight as a single oral dose, no significant changes were found in the observational parameters, body weight, hematological and biochemical parameters, including gross pathological examinations with either of the extracts. Sub-acute toxicity study with the extracts at 5, 50 and 300 mg/kg body weight once orally for 28 days showed non-significant changes in observational parameters, body weights hematological and most of the biochemical parameters, except significant increase in total cholesterol and HDL cholesterol level in root extract and significant decrease in SGPT activity in leaf extract which are instead the indicator of betterment of biochemical profiles indicating that the extracts were well tolerated by the experimental animals. Additionally, HPLC analysis of the said extracts could detect the presence of withaferin A and withanolide A in leaf extract and 12-deoxywithastramonolide and withanolide A in root extracts.
Keywords:
Ashwagandha, Oral toxicity, Rats, Root and leaf extracts, Safety evaluation.
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© CSIR-Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants, (CSIR-CIMAP), Lucknow, India.
Kumari, R., Pal, A., Gupta, M. M., Mani, D., & Chanda, D.(2025). In-vivo safety profile of Withania somnifera in Charles Foster rats. Journal of Medicinal and Aromatic Plant Sciences, 47(3).162-167.
