Acute Toxicity Study of Modified Je-Ho-Tang in ICR Mice

Previous studies have shown that modified Je-Ho-Tang (MJHT) has anti-platelet effects. Je-Ho-Tang (JHT), a Korean court beverage, is a traditional Korean herbal medicine that has been used for the treatment of a disease attended by great thirst, and for prevention of illness in hot summers. We made MJHT from JHT by excluding honey. The present study was performed to determine the acute oral toxicity of crude extract of MJHT in male and female ICR mice. We investigated the in vivo single dose acute toxicity of MJHT hot-water extraction. This test was orally administered once by gavage to 20 mice of each sex received doses of 0 (control group), 1250, 2500 and 5000 mg/kg body weight. Mortalities, clinical findings, autopsy findings and body weight changes were monitored daily for 14 days following the administration. We observed survival rates, general toxicities, changes of body weight, and autopsy. No significant lethality was observed after single oral administration of MJHT at the different dosages. Autopsies on the animals revealed no gross abnormalities. Therefore, the LD50 value of MJHT for ICR mice was estimated more than 5000 mg/kg by the oral route. These results suggest that no toxic dose level of MJHT in mice is considered to be more than 5000 mg/kg. Consequently, it was concluded that MJHT have no effect on acute toxicity and side effect in ICR mice.