الفهرس 
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Abstract
Citrullus colocynthis is a wild desert plant widely distributed in different location of Egyptian deserts. It is belong Family Turubtitacae. the dry fruit pulp used in Egyptian Folklore medicine however , this plant is danger for human and domestic animals in pasture .
The available literatures devoid reports about the studies of toxic effect of Citrullus colocynthis in Egypt , so the present work was performed. Three experiments were carried out to study the pathological , clinicopathological and teratological effects of Citrullus colocynthis extract on albino rats.
To study the pathological effect , 160 albino rats were used divided into 8 equal groups from the 1st to 7th groups , the rats dosed 1/3 , 1/5 , 1/10 , 1/20 , 1/30 , 1/40 and 1/50 LD5o of crude extract of Citrullus colocynthis twice weekly by using metalic rat stomach tube . The eighth group employed as control. The rats were sacrificed after
three months .
Macroscopically , generalized congestion with the presence of grayish white spots on the liver , lungs and kidneys in addition to petechial hemorrhages on the heart and enlargement of spleen were noticed. These findings were prominent in acute form in rats received 1/3 and 1/5 LD 50.
Microscopically , the common lesions were as follows ;
In the livers , congestion of central veins and sinusoids , degenerative changes and necrosis , focal areas of hemorrhages together with hyperplasia of the lining epithelium of the bile ducts were detected. Moreover , preneoplastic changes in the form of microscopical nodular
formation of hepatocytes were observed in the rats received 1/40 LD5o twice weekly for three months.
The examined kidneys , revealed congestion of renal blood vessels and intertubular capillaries with hemorrhages and tubular degeneration.
Heart , congestion of the myocardial blood vessels intermuscular hemorrhages and focal; areas of mononuclear cellular infiltration were commonly seen.
Brain , The examined brain showed congestion of meningeal blood vessels , neural degeneration and encephalomalasia.
Spleen , the examined spleen in most rats revealed congestion of the blood vessels , necrosis in their walls and depletation of the lymphoid follicles.
Lungs , congestion of pulmonary blood vessels and interalveolar capillaries , perivascular hemorrhages , mononuclear cellular infiltration and desquamation of the bronchial epithelium were noticed.
Testis , the examined testis showed intertubular edema ,
degenerative changes of semineferous tubular epithelium and dearangement of primary and secondary spermatocytes.
Clinocopathological study was also carried out to investigated the effect of the Citrullus colocynthis extract on the blood picture and serum biochemical parameters . Three groups ( C , D and E) which received 1/10 , 1/20 and 1/30 LD5o of this extract and the control group ( G) were used.
EDTA blood was collected from the medical canthus of the eye of the rats every two weeks . The obtained results revealed ;
1-The erythocytic count , hemoglobin content and packed cell volume (P C y) were significantly decreased. Meanwhile the total leucocytic counts were significantly increased.
2-Biochemical parameters evaluated the liver function as serum glutamuic pyrovic tranaminase ( S. GPT ) , serum glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase ( S. GOT) , serum alkaline phosphatase (S. ALP) and serum bilirubin were significantly increased . While the total protein and glucose values were significantly decreased.
3-Biochemical parameters evaluated the kidney function as serum urea , creatinine and potassium were increased.
For teratogenic studies , the effect of Citrullus colocynthis was studied on 30 females mature sexually rats. The pregnant rats were divided into three equal groups. The first and second groups received 1/10 and 1/20 LD5O of crude extract of Citrullus colocynthis daily from 6th till 15th day of gestation. The third group lifted as a control. The rats were sacrificed at 20th day of pregnancy and dissected carefully to detected any abnormalities of foeti.. The study revealed that
1)The foeti of the treated mothers showed decreased body weight , body length and number of viable foeti. An increase in the number of resorbed foeti was also recorded.
2)The foeti obtained from the female rats doses 1/10 LD50 showed visceral abnormalities . Atrophy of the lungs in addition to absence of the bones of the digits , caudal vertebrae , some sternebrae and incomplete ossification of some cranial bones were recorded.
3)The foeti of the mothers rats received 1/20 LD5o of Citrullus colocynthis extract showed hypoplasia of the lungs and hypertrophy of the hearts with corregation of the ribs and shrinkage of the skin.