Abstract
ABSTRACT Carissa carandas — a member of the family Apocynaceae, has gained tremendous attention from the scientific community for its impressive nutritional and health‐promoting features. There is little information available on the toxicological risks associated with consuming the fruit; therefore, the present study aimed to investigate the toxicity of the commercially viable doses of the fruit and its extracts in an experimental rat model. A 28‐day sub‐acute feeding trial was performed on male albino rats using 5%–10% supplementation of C. carandas dehydrated powder and methanol fruit extracts. Our results demonstrated a significant ( p ≤ 0.05) increase in hemoglobin and hematocrit concentration, from 11 to 14 g/dL and 35%–46%, respectively. Hematological results further confirmed improved hematopoiesis and thrombocytopoiesis due to dispensing C. carandas and its methanol extract, anticipating a significant increase in platelet counts from 627 to 1090 × 10 3 /μL. The study's hepatic and renal histopathological findings also demonstrated no visible degenerative or inflammatory risks on sub‐acute administered doses of fruit powder and extracts. The results indicate that lower doses of C. carandas powder and extracts, that is, < 10% dietary supplementation, do not elicit any detrimental or toxicological effect in the rats, suggesting C carandas to be a valuable and promising candidate for developing value‐added functional foods to alleviate the risks of nutritional and other adverse health conditions.