Abstract:

To evaluate the prescription’s clinical safety from the perspective of modern pharmacology，studies were made on the toxicology of anti-dysentery powder. In this experiment we examined the acute toxicity of anti-dysentery powder and realgar by intragastric administration in mice; assessed its long-term toxicity in rats through recording the amount of hydroposia and feeds-foraging per day and body weight per week，measuring hematologic and blood biochemical indexed after administration for 24 hours and withdrawal for 2 weeks，and made pathological section after intragastric administration for 4 weeks in rats with low(4 g/kg)，middle(8 g/kg)，and high(16 g/kg) dosage groups. The results showed that: the medial lethal dose(LD50) of anti-dysentery powder by oral administration for mouse was 124.8 g/kg and its 95% confidence limits were 111.2 to 142.5 g/kg，while，LD50 of realgar by oral administration for mouse was 10.5 g/kg，and its 95% confidence limits were 9.7 to 11.1 g/kg. Rats in low dose group did not appear visible toxicity and in middle dose group，rats showed significant toxicity，manifesting in reduced feed and water，body weight loss，gastrointestinal hyperemia and hemorrhage，presence of liver inflammatory cell infiltration，vacuolar degeneration of liver cells，hyporrhea of kidney and heart，as well as increased serum urea nitrogen，lutamate-pyruvate transaminase，glutamic-oxaloacetic transaminase and alkaline phosphatase. Rats in high dose group did not die during the treatment. The above toxic reaction basically disappeared after withdrawal for 2 weeks. It was concluded that anti-dysentery powder had a lower toxicity，and the medication was safe according to the dose defined by China Veterinary Pharmacopoeia，but with long-term use it could cause accumulation，resulting in damage of liver and kidney，and meanwhile，its toxicity was reversible.

Key words: anti-dysentery powder; toxicology; acute toxicity; long-term toxicity