Acute toxicity and antihyperlipidemic activity of polyherbal formulation in poloxamer-induced hyperlipidemic mice model

This study assesses acute toxicity and antihyperlipidemic activity of a new polyherbal preparation, CHM-Lipid. It was developed based on the traditional use of indigenous plants Celastrus hindsii, Curcuma zedoaria, Docynia indica, Hibiscus sabdariffa, and Lactuca indica in Vietnam. The acute toxicity was evaluated following the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) guidelines No. 423 using six lots of BALB/c albino mice. The antihyperlipidemic activity: Total Cholesterol (TC), Triglyceride (TG), Low-Density Lippoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), and High-Density Lippoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) was studied using Poloxamer 407 (P-407) induced hyperlipidemia mice model on 25 Swiss albino mice of either sex. The mice fasted overnight were divided into three control groups, namely negative control given intraperitoneally injected isotonic saline, positive control given P-407, and given P-407 and treated with the standard drug. Two groups were induced with P-407 and treated with different doses of CHM-Lipid at 500 and 1,000 mg/kgP. The acute toxicity analysis showed that CHM-Lipid was orally non-toxic at a single dose of 5,000 mg/kgP. It did not cause any pre-clinical changes in experimental animals. The results of the antihyperlipidemic study showed that CHM-Lipid exhibited noticeable antihyperlipidemic activity in the P-407-induced mice model at the 500 mg/kgP dose with significantly lowered TC, TG, and LDL-C values. These findings suggest that CHM-Lipid could be a promising candidate for the development of new antihyperlipidemic drugs and suggest that CHM-Lipid may serve as a safe and effective antihyperlipidemic polyherbal combination.