Effect of Cardamom Oil After Acute and Repeated Administration in Albino Wistar Rats

Purpose: Cardamom is an important medicinal plant widely used in Ayurvedic medicines for therapeutic purposes. However, the toxicity study of the essential oil obtained from Elettaria cardamomum is not well explored. Therefore, the present study aims to design acute and repeated dose oral toxicity of cardamom oil as per the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) guidelines.

A single oral dose of cardamom oil at 300 and 2000 mg/kg was administered to female Wistar rats, and they were observed for signs of behavioural changes, mortality, and morbidity for 14 days. In the case of a repeated dose toxicity study of cardamom oil, doses of 50, 100, and 200 mg/kg were administered to rats for 28 days orally. The effect of cardamom oil on body weight, food intake, consumption of water, relative organ weight, hematological and urine parameters, and clinical biochemistry profile was studied. Histopathology and gross necropsy of vital organs were performed.

In an acute toxicity study, cardamom oil at a 300 mg/kg dose did not show any signs of toxicity. At a 2000 mg/kg dose, cardamom oil showed mortality in one animal, and the other two animals displayed mild signs of toxicity. Based on the results of the acute toxicity study, it can be concluded that the lethal dose (LD)₅₀ of cardamom oil is greater than 2000 mg/kg. In a repeated dose toxicity study, cardamom oil at 50, 100, and 200 mg/kg did not show any significant changes in body weight, food intake, water consumption, and relative organ weight. Cardamom oil did not show any significant changes in biochemical, renal, haematological parameters, and histopathological study as compared to the control group.

Cardamom oil was found to be safe at 300 mg/kg in an acute toxicity study and at all selected dose levels in a repeated dose toxicity study in rats.