polysaccharide

Toxicology is the important aspect of pharmacology that deals with the adverse effect of bio active substance on living organisms prior to the use as drug or chemical in clinical use. As per the OECD guidelines, in order to establish the safety and efficiency of a new drug, toxicological studies are very essential in animals like mice, rat, guinea pig, dog, rabbit, monkey etc under various conditions of drug. Toxicological studies help to make decision clinically without its clinical trial as well as toxicity studies. The present study has been under taken to study the adverse or hazardous effects of polysaccharide extract from Terminalia bellerica gum (TBG) and establish the safety over, Swiss albino mice of female sex as per OECD guidelines 423. All the animals were acclimatized to laboratory conditions for one week prior to the experiment and mice were sequentially administered orally the extract of Terminalia bellerica gum (TBG) in dosage of 50, 300, 2000 mg/kg body weight. All the animals were observed for mortality and different signs of toxicity for 14 days. No mortality or any significant changes were observed at 2000 mg/kg body weight. Keywords-OECD guideline 423, Terminalia bellerica gum, polysaccharide, Swiss albino mice  

Levamisole, marketed as the hydrochloride salt under the trade name Ergamisol (R12564), is an anti helminthic and imminomodulator belonging to a class of synthetic imidazo-thiazole derivatives. It was discovered in 1966 at  Belgium's  Janssen pharmaceutica, where it was prepared initially in the form of its racemate called tetramisole. The two stereoisomersof tetramisole were subsequently synthesized, and the levorotatory isomer was given the name levamisole. Levamisole has been used in humans to treat parasitic worm infections, and has been studied in combination with other forms of chemotherapy for colon cancer, melanoma and head and neck cancer  In some of the leukemic cell line studies, both levamisole and tetramisole showed similar effect. Effective studies need to be undertaken to study the full potential of levamisole in Immunostimulation activities and immuno synergestic effect of Levamisole with combination to natural polysaccharides. Keywords-Levamisole, Immunostimulation, polysaccharide, Tetramisole