Development and Acute Oral Toxicity Evaluation of a Dry Extract from Tamarindus Indica L

Abstract

The necessity for obtaining dry extracts from natural products is evident. For this, most useful methods are spray-drying and freeze-drying. The last is long and expensive. The former is fast but also expensive. The aim of this work was to obtain a dry extract from Tamarindus indica L fluid extracts, by a simple technique at laboratory scale, which can be used properly in pharmaceutical compounding and to evaluate the acute oral toxicity of it. Lactose monohydrate and colloidal silicon dioxide were used as adjuvants to improve the drying process. The best proportion of the adjuvant was achieved using a Central Composite 22 full factorial design. The acute oral toxicity was evaluated in Wistar rats, by using the OECD 425 methodology. The optimized proportion of the adjuvant was 1.14 g of colloidal silicon dioxide and 25.0 g of lactose monohydrate. The colloidal silicon dioxide plays an essential role on the physicomechanical properties of the dry extract. The extract was framed as a non-toxic substance (Not classified) according to the scale of toxicity of OECD 425. Thus, the present study allowed obtaining a dried extract with excellent physicomechanical properties, by using a simple’s method.