Toxicity and histopathological effects of ethanol corm extract of Zygotritonia crocea traditionally used for treatment of intestinal disorder associated with typhoid, diarrhoea and dysentery in South-west, Nigeria was studied on the liver of Wistar albino rats. Rats were randomly distributed into groups A, B and C (n=7). Groups B and C received 100 and 200 mg/kg body weight extract respectively per day through oral cannula for 21 days while group A (control) received 0.3 ml normal saline for the same period. Then, the liver was collected for histopathological examinations. The mortality rate of treated rats was 42.86% for both doses on the 7th and 14th day while 57.14% was recorded on the 21st day for rats treated with 200 mg/kg compared with the untreated rats (control). Histopathatological findings showed that the liver sections of the treated rats have clear evidence of degenerative changes and cyto-architectural distortions of the hepatic parenchyma which was more severe with the higher dose. These findings show that Z. crocea is toxic at the doses investigated and therefore, will need some caution in its consumption.
Keywords: Ethanolic extract, Toxicology., Wistar rats, Zygotritonia crocea, histopathology
