Toxicity studies of labisia pumila supplement on female wistar rats

Labisia pumila (L. pumila) also called Kacip Fatimah, is a herbal medicine that has been widely used since ancient times. However, toxicity study of L. pumila is still lacking. This study was principally designed to determine the effect of acute (14 days) and sub-acute (28 days) administration of L. pumila supplement provided by Bioalpha International Sdn. Bhd. on female Wistar (WI) rats. Ten WI rats (150 ± 25 g) were divided equally into 2 groups (n=5) in acute study while forty-two WI rats (145 ± 20 g) were divided equally into 7 groups (n=6) in sub-acute study. In acute study, the treatment group was administered with a single dose of 2000 mg/kg of L. pumila extract once at the first day of treatment while in sub-acute study, treatment group was administered with different dosage of 50 mg/kg, 250 mg/kg, 500 mg/kg and 1000 mg/kg of L. pumila extract daily within 28 days. Based on this study, the result showed L. pumila extract is relatively safe at doses below 2000 mg/kg prior to human consumption because no obvious toxicity found in female WI rats for both acute and sub-acute studies.