Some Toxicological studies on ammi majus seeds grown in Egypt

The seeds of Ammi majus plant which grown naturallyin the fi elds in Egypt and is consumed by the grazinganimals were subjected in the present work to toxico-pharmacological studies~ The results obtained aresunmcr Lz od as follows:1- Chemical studies:Chemical investigation was done to determine totalalcoholic extract, coumarins and glycosidic fractionsof Ammi majus seeds. It was found that ”5!1 killogramsof the dried seeds yield one killogr&~ total alcoholicc:xtract , on the other hand the perc.entage of coumar~ins and glycosides found in total alcoholic extractwere 89% and 7% respectively.2- Toxicological studies:A- Acute toxicity:L D50 of total alcoholic extract was 2925.6 mg/kgweight, coumarins 1197e73 mg/kg body weight and gly-cosides 570.48 mg/kg B.wt. This result indicatesthat the glycosidcs are the more toxic when intra-peritoneally injected into rats.Toxic symptoms noted were generally loss of appc-tite,sluggishness and accelerated respiration fo-llowed by doath. On postmortem examination conges-tion of liver and lungs together with peritonitieswere noted.