Preliminary Acute Oral Toxicity Study of White Tea Leaf (Camellia sinensis (L.) Kuntze) Ethanolic Extracts

Background: White tea is a kind of tea which manufactured with minimal processing only drying without fermentation process. White tea prepared from very young tea leaves or buds of Camellia sinensis (L.) Kuntze, Theaceae, covered with tiny, silvery hairs, and dried immediately after picking to prevent oxidation and commonly used as a beverage and herbal medicine. Objective: The present study was aimed to evaluate the safety of the white tea leaf ethanolic extract (WTE) with acute toxicity tests. Methods: The acute oral toxicity of WTE performed at dose 1250, 2500, and 5000 mg/Kg BW of Deutschland, Denken, and Yoken (DDY) mice. The animals observation for any mortality, behavioral, body weight and feed-water consumption pattern during the 14- day study. The liver, kidney, and heart isolation performed on day-15 to observe macroscopic and relative organ weight (ROW). Results: No treatment-related toxic symptom or mortality observed for the first 4 hours and 24 hours after oral administration of WTE at a dose of 1250, 2500, and 5000 mg/kg BW. All the groups of mice did not show the significant changes in behavior, breathing, and motoric activity. Conclusions: This studies showed that the oral LD₅₀ of WTE was greater than 5000 mg/kg BW and suggests that the WTE is practically non-toxic in a single dose of level 5000 mg/kg BW.