Process-dependent chemical fingerprints and acute oral toxicity of four crude extracts of Edgeworthia gardneri (Wall.) Meisn in mice

Edgeworthia gardneri (Wall.) Meisn is used as a Tibetan herbal tea and medicinal resource, but safety information is scarce. Four flower extracts from water decoction, water flash extraction (WFE), alcohol reflux, and alcohol flash extraction (AFE) (water decoction extract (WDE), WFE, alcohol reflux extract (ARE), and AFE, respectively) underwent preliminary acute oral toxicity assessment and high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) fingerprint-based chemical characterization. C57BL/6J mice were randomly assigned to a vehicle control or four extract groups (n = 10 per group; five males and five females); extract groups received a single oral dose of 1500 mg/kg. Animals were observed for 14 days; clinical signs, mortality, body weight, organ weights and coefficients, serum biochemical indices, and liver and kidney histopathology were assessed. HPLC fingerprinting identified 28 common peaks; peak responses and similarities differed among extracts, with WFE showing the greatest chromatographic deviation. No mortality or persistent signs of acute toxicity were observed. Body weight increased progressively without sustained suppression attributable to any extract. Organ coefficients and serum biochemical measurements showed sporadic changes without concordant toxicological significance. In male WDE-treated mice, serum aspartate aminotransferase (AST) increased, whereas alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) remained unchanged, and blinded liver scores did not indicate treatment-related injury. Under the tested single-dose conditions, the four E. gardneri flower extracts produced minimal evidence of acute oral toxicity in mice of either sex at 1500 mg/kg extract (crude-herb equivalents: 4.6–13.8 g/kg). These findings provide a reference for dose selection and methodology in future comparative safety assessments of different extraction processes. Compositional variations among extracts were noted, and their relevance to safety warrants further study.