Preliminary studies of acute and sub-chronic toxicity of the aqueous extract of Guibourtia tessmannii (Harms) J. Leonard stem barks (Caesalpiniaceae) in mice and rats

AbstractObjectiveTo investigate the toxicity of aqueous extract of Guibourtia tessmannii (Harms) J. Leonard (G. tessmannii) and evaluate its safety.MethodsNMRI mice were used to determine the acute toxicity of G. tessmannii. Increasing concentrations of the plant extracts were administered intraperitoneally or by force-feeding. General behavior and death were monitored and recorded daily for 7 days. In order to determine the sub-acute toxicity of the extract, several doses were administered by oral gavage daily for 28 days in adult Wistar rats. Different parameters were assessed including body weight, food and water intake, biochemical parameters and several vital organ weights.ResultsLD50 of 328.78 mg/kg was obtained by i.p. route and more than 5000 mg/kg was obtained in acute toxicity by oral route. In sub-acute toxicity, no significant alteration was observed in body weight or vital organs, food and water intake, and biochemical parameters.ConclusionsThe results showed that the aqueous extract of G. tessmannii has low toxicity intraperitoneally and no sub-acute toxicity via oral intake

Diversity of Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains isolated from Borassus akeassii palm wines from Burkina Faso in comparison to other African beverages

In South-West of Burkina Faso, palm wine is produced by spontaneous fermentation of the sap from a specific palm tree Borassus akeassii and plays an important role in people's lives. Saccharomyces cerevisiae is the main agent of this alcoholic fermentation but little is known about the diversity of the isolates from palm. In this work, 39 Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains were isolated from palm wine samples collected from 14 sites in Burkina Faso, as well as 7 isolates obtained from sorghum beer (Dolo) from 3 distant sites. Their diversity was analyzed at 12 microsatellite loci, and compared to the genotypes obtained for other African yeast populations isolated from Cocoa hulks from Ghana, sorghum beer from Ivory Coast, palm wine from Djibouti Republic, and to our database of strains from miscellaneous origins (bread, beer, wine, sake, oaks...). The ploidy of these strains has been assessed as well by flow cytometry. Our results show that B. akeassii palm wine contains a specific yeast population of diploid strains, different from Dolo produced in the same area and from other palm wine strains from Ivory Coast, Nigeria, or Djibouti Republic. In contrast, Dolo strains appeared as a group of related and mainly tetraploid strains despite being isolated from different countries