Abstract Toxicological assessment of any herbal medicine is to identify adverse effects and to determine limits of exposure level at which such effects occur. Assessment of haematological and biochemical parameters could be used to determine the extent of deleterious effect of foreign compound including plant extract on biological systems. Garcinia kola is a medicinal plant with immense benefits used in traditional medicine. The effect of administration of doses of saponin extract from the root of Garcinia kola on Alanine aminotransferae (ALT), Aspartate aminotransferase (AST), Alkaline Phosphatase (ALP), Acid Phosphatase (ACP), bilirubin, total protein, creatinine, urea, glucose, PCV, Hb, and WBC in rats was determined to ascertain the toxic effects on vital organs and haematological parameters. The exposure of rats at 100, 200 and 400mg/kg of saponin extract of the root of Garcinia kola did not alter haematological composition negatively since there was no significant difference in the PCV and haemoglobin levels but there was a significant increase in the concentration of the WBC. The exposure of the animals to the saponin extract of the root of Garcinia kola at all the doses when tested for the biochemical parameters such as protein, urea, electrolytes; AST, ALT and ALP did not show any significant difference in their serum levels when compared with the control animals, although there were little variations in the tissues which could be as a result of increased or decreased de-novo synthesis of the enzymes. This indicates that the saponin extract may not be harmful at the levels tested and could be safely used for all the biological activities it possesses at these doses (100mg/kg, 200mg/kg and 400mg/kg) respectively. Saponin extract from the root of Garcinia kola could be explored for the synthesis of novel drugs in improving health care delivery.
Keywords Garcinia kola, Saponin, Toxicological, Haematological, Biochemical.