Toxicity Evaluation of Methanol Extract of Clitoria ternatea L. Leaf

The Clitoria ternatea (Fabaceae) root, seed, and leaf are commonly used in Ayurvedic medicine in Malaysia and Indonesia. The methanol leaf extracts of C. ternatea was tested for toxicity by means of brine shrimp lethality test and acute oral toxicity assay. In the brine shrimp lethality test, the leaf extract were non-toxic or showed weak lethality (LC50 1 mg/ml) at the 6 h, 12 h and 24 h incubation period. Nevertheless, at the 48 h incubation time, the leaf extract exhibited moderate toxicity activity with LC50 values of 0.49 mg/ml. In the acute toxicity study using mice, the median lethal dose (LD50) of the extract was found greater than 2000 mg/kg, and we found no pathological changes by means of macroscopic examination of tissues of mice treated with the extract. We conclude that the C. ternatea leaf extract is not toxic in mice and brine shrimp.