environmental toxicology and pharmacology 31 ( 2 0 1 1 ) 242–249 available at www.sciencedirect.com journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/etap Toxicological evaluation of Pterocaulon polystachyum extract: A medicinal plant with antifungal activity Gabriela Gregory Regner a , Janaína Gianesini a , Rafael Gomes Von Borowski a , Fabiana Silveira d , Juliane Garcia Semedo b , Alexandre de Barros Falcão Ferraz c , Elenir Wiilland f , Gilsane Von Poser e , Mariângela Allgayer d , Jaqueline Nascimento Picada b , Patrícia Pereira a,* a Laboratório de Farmacologia e Toxicologia, ULBRA, Canoas, RS, Brazil b Laboratório de Genética Toxicológica Aplicada, ULBRA, Canoas, RS, Brazil c Laboratório de Fitoquímica, ULBRA, Canoas, RS, Brazil d Laboratório de Patologia Clínica, Hospital Veterinário, ULBRA, Canoas, RS, Brazil e Programa de Pós Graduac ¸ão em Ciências Farmacêuticas, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil f Laboratório de Histofisiologia Animal, ULBRA, Canoas, RS, Brazil article info Article history: Received 27 July 2010 Received in revised form 26 October 2010 Accepted 1 November 2010 Available online 9 November 2010 Keywords: Pterocaulon polystachyum Acute toxicity Subacute toxicity Biochemical assay Comet assay Micronucleus assay abstract Pterocaulon polystachyum DC is a native species to southern Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and northeastern Argentina. It is utilized to treat animal problems popularly diagnosed as “mycoses”. The antifungal and amebicidal activity of its hexane extract has been previously reported, although there are no studies confirming the safety of this plant for therapeu- tic purposes to date. Hence, this study investigates the toxic effects of a hexane extract of Pterocaulon polystachyum administered as acute and subacute oral treatments. After acute treatment the extract caused alterations in biochemical parameters, morphological alter- ations in tissues and was genotoxic, according to the comet assay; neither mortality nor visible signs of lethality were seen in mice. Similarly subacute treatment caused important differences in biochemical parameters and tissues, between control and treated groups. The results also revealed genotoxicity in kidney tissue, though no mutagenicity was detected by the micronucleus test. No animal died during the treatment period. © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Medicinal plants are widely used in traditional medicine and play an important role in the development of novel pharma- cological agents (Munari et al., 2010). Currently, the traditional or popular knowledge put to practice in the treatment of animals (ethnoveterinary treatments) is considered a valu- ∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +55 51 34629573; fax: +55 51 33167003. E-mail address: patipere@yahoo.com.br (P. Pereira). able tool in the discovery of new drugs (Mathias-Mundy and McCorkle, 1995; McCorkle, 1986). In this scenario, ethnoveteri- nary research has indicated that some Pterocaulon species are useful in traditional medicine for different purposes such as digestive, antiseptic, antiparasitic, insecticidal and antifungal activities (Stein et al., 2005). Species of the genus Pterocaulon are used in traditional medicine in different parts of the world due to their antibiotic 1382-6689/$ – see front matter © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.etap.2010.11.003