Aim: To study the chronic toxicity of gambogic acid (GA), the major active ingredient of gamboges, a brownish to orange resin extracted from the Garcinia hanburyi (family Guttiferae) in Southeast Asia, using Sprague-Dawley rat as an animal model and provide further theoretical support for clinical applications of this promising natural anticancer agent.
Methods: GA was administered orally at dosages of 120, 60 and 30 mg/kg once every other day for a total of 13 weeks. Then we carried out the chronic toxicity studies including general body parameters, hematological, serum biochemistry, histopathological, and viscera examination.
Results: The results from the studies demonstrated that rats treated with high dose (120 mg/kg) of GA for a long time can lead to the damage on the kidney and liver. An innocuous dose was established to be 60 mg/kg after administration to rats for a total of 13 weeks at a frequency of one administration every other day. This dose was approximately 18.0 (body weight) or 9.6 (body surface area) times higher then that of the dose (200mg/60 kg, every other day) used for human trials.
Conclusions: The studies demonstrated that the toxicity targets in the rats were the kidney and liver. These results provide further theoretical support for clinical applications of this promising natural anticancer agent.