**3.1 Acute toxicity test**

174 Toxicity and Drug Testing

root preparation. Some remedies are prepared from a single plant species; however, in a few

Most of the remedies are taken orally and by external application as body bath, steam bath, and as ointment. Fumigation is mainly used in the treatment of headache and chest pain. For most of the remedies, the administered dose depends on the patient's age, physical and health condition, and the duration of the illness. The doses vary from a teacup (70 ml) for adults to a handful (25 ml) for a child; a lack of agreement among the healers on doses of remedies was sometimes noted. The variation of the doses from one healer to another may show that the plants have a low degree of toxicity. For pharmacological investigation the active doses of these plants may not be high since they appear to treat the patients with low doses. The duration of treatment is not given for all remedies. According to the healers duration of treatment is difficult to determine and depends on how long the patient has been ill. The patient is supposed to take the remedy until healed. The only person able to determine the end of a treatment is the patient himself since the remedy is taken at home in

The reported adverse effects for the use of these medicinal plants are vomiting and dizziness. According to the healers these effects are generally due to an overdose of the remedy. The adverse effects are generally moderate, and disappear at the end of the treatment. Also, patients are advice to drink a lot of milk, meat soup or porridge made from

Districts Sub-County Numbers of healers Sex Age range

Kanungu 5 4 1 28–76 5 3 2 30–79 5 5 0 42–85 5 5 0 35–55 5 4 1 65–85

Bushenyi kyangyenyi 5 5 0 47–70 Kigarama 5 5 0 38–80 5 5 1 27–70 5 5 0 49–104 5 5 0 56–80

Mbarara Nyakayojo 10 8 2 45–73 Kinoni 10 10 0 55–62 Rugando 10 9 1 50–61 Bugamba 10 9 1 50-59

Table 1. An overview of the traditional healers interviewed.

Males Females

cases mixtures of plants or other substances are added as noted in Table 2

the absence of the healers.

sorghum to help alleviate serious side effects.

The median lethal dose LD50 was established to be 560 1.21 mg/kg i.p. in mice and 3.32 0.15 g/kg oral in rats. Adverse signs of gaiting, reduction in stereotypic activities and deaths were however seen in high doses.
