Background and Objectives: Seeds of cultivated safflower which are now used in pharmaceutical and food industries are in white coat color. No commercially available pigmented genotype of cultivated safflower has been reported yet. This study was to investigate the probable toxicological effects of black coat seed of a new pigmented variety of safflower (A82) on liver and kidney tissues of male wistar rats.
Methods: In the present experimental study, 54 male wistar rats were randomly divided into 2 groups of 24 (including 4 subgroups of 6 rats) and a control group of 6 rats. Group 1 (control group), distilled water, group 2 (CTBS) and Group 3 (CTWS) were respectively given grain crust suspension (A82) and white shell (C111) safflower on a daily basis, at doses of 30, 60, 180 and 240 mg per kg body weight orally for 5 weeks. In order to address the biochemical tests including alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST) ,alkaline phosphatase (ALP), blood urea nitrogen (BUN) and creatinine (Cr), arterial blood samples were taken. Regarding histological studies, liver and kidney organs were removed immediately. After fixation of samples in 10% formalin, 4-5 µm tissue sections were prepared. Hematoxylin and Eosin (H&E) staining method followed by light microscopy was used to examine the sections. One-way ANOVA was used to compare the means between groups and least significant difference (LSD) was used to perform additional tests.
Results: In both CTBS and CTWS treatment groups, the body weight of wistar rats increased significantly in a dose-dependent manner (233.00±4.74 and 218.76±5.43, respectively) compared to the control group (196.79±4.88). The increasing trend was significantly higher in CTBS group compared to the CTWS group (p<0.05). In contrast to the results of body weight, organ weights of liver and kidney treatment groups were not significantly changed in all treatment groups. The serum levels of ALT and AST showed no significant difference between treatment groups and also in comparison to the control group. The serum level of ALP within CTBS treatment group (567.39±32.5) was significantly lower than CTWS (609.94±30.5) and control groups (819.50±38.21) (p<0.05). BUN and Cr were decreased among treatment groups in comparison to the control group (p>0.05). Moreover, regarding histopathological studies, neither liver nor kidney necrosis or damages were visualized in treatment groups in a dose-dependent manner.
Conclusion: Our findings showed that safflower seed, especially black ones (A82) has no toxic effects over liver and kidney tissues. The positive effects of black seeds on body weight among wistar rats may be an interesting effect to be further investigated for exploitation in the poultry industry.
