Toxicity studies of Acacia nilotica (L.): A review of the published scientific literature

Abstract

Introduction: Acacia nilotica is a valuable plant with medicinal properties that increasinglyincites the curiosity of many researchers. Its pharmacological properties are reported in manystudies, but the fact remains that the plant can be just as toxic as any modern pharmaceuticaldrug. It is very important to dispose sufficient knowledge on what are reported concerning itstoxicity profile. This review is aimed to provide comprehensive summary (all-in-one) of whathave been reported about the toxicity of A. nilotica and to determine the necessity or not toconduct more toxicological studies in a further step toward rationalizing its medicinal use.Methods: Scientific information about the toxicity and or safety of A. nilotica reported elsewherewere reviewed. Search engines such as Google, Bing and Baidu and databases of scientificjournals such as PubMed, Scopus, CAS, CABI, HINARI and AJOL were used to retrieve studiesfrom 1999 to 2017.Results: Few studies have reported the toxicity potential of A. nilotica and most with very limitedinformation. Three of them have reported serious deleterious toxic effects of certain parts of theplant on major organ systems such as kidney and liver. Stem bark as part of A. nilotica appearedto be the most cited to cause observable clinical signs of toxicity and organs lesions.Conclusion: Overall, this review provided comprehensive information on what is known aboutthe toxicity of A. nilotica and showed the necessity to conduct more advanced long-term-basedtoxicological studies.

Keywords

• Medicinal plants
• Acacia nilotica
• Organ toxicity
• Cytotoxicity