Acute and subchronic toxicity as well as evaluation of safety pharmacology of traditional Chinese medicine "Huhezi".

The study was conducted to evaluate the toxicity and safety pharmacology of the traditional Chinese medicine, "Huhezi" granules. The results of acute toxicity test showed that the granules' LD50 was more than 5000 mg/kg, which indicated that the "Huhezi" belonged to actually non-toxic drug. Subchronic toxicity study showed that non-toxic reaction were detected in high (1000 mg/kg), medium (500 mg/kg) and low dose (250 mg/kg) of "Huhezi" groups by measuring rat body weight, organ coefficient, blood physiological indexes and blood biochemical indexes. Pathological examination showed that no tissue lesions were observed in test organs except liver (mild granular degenerationand reversible vesicular degeneration), spleen (Langerhans cells infiltrating) and kidney (homogeneous red staining of renal tubule). Safety pharmacology study found that "Huhezi" had no effects on the central nervous system, respiratory system and cardiovascular system. These results suggested that the dose of "Huhezi" at or below 1000 mg/kg through oral administration is considered safe.