Acute toxicity study of onion peel-derived gold nano-bioconjugate.

The acute anti-inflammatory activity of onion peel-derived gold nano-bioconjugate was already established earlier. The current study was aimed to investigate the acute oral toxicity of onion peel-derived gold nano-bioconjugate (GNBC) for safe therapeutic utilization in vivo. The acute toxicity study was carried out in female mice for 15 days and showed no mortality and any abnormal complications. The lethal dose (LD 50 ) was evaluated and found to be higher than 2000 mg/kg. After 15 days, animals were euthanized and hematological, and biochemical analyses were performed. In all hematological and biochemical assays, treated animals did not show significant toxicity when compared to the control group. The body weight, behavior, and histopathological studies showed that GNBC is nontoxic. Thereby, the results suggest that onion peel-derived gold nano-bioconjugate GNBC can be utilized for therapeutic applications in vivo.