Toxicity study of Bidens pilosa in animals

Bidens pilosa (BP) is an edible Asteraceae plant found worldwide that has traditionally been used as food without noticeable side effects. BP has also been used as an herbal medicine to treat over 41 categories of disease in humans and animals. However, to date no long-term toxicity study of BP has been conducted in animals. In this study, 24-week oral toxicity of BP at doses of 0%, 0.5%, 2.5%, 5% and 10% of food was investigated in mice. Mortality, body weight, organ weight, food intake, water consumption, hematology, serum biochemistry, urinalysis, genotoxicity and organ histopathology of animals of both sexes were analyzed. No significant difference in the above parameters was observed between control and BP-fed mice except that body weight and food intake in those fed with 10% BP were significantly less than controls. In addition, similar results were seen in chickens fed with BP for 28 days. Collectively, the data demonstrate that BP has no adverse effects in mice and chickens at dose of 5% or less of food.