Acute toxicity, is one of the important tests conducted for the initial determination of the safety of products and is the effects of single or multiples doses of a product administered to animals or taken by humans within a 24-hour period. It is one important test required for the initial determination of the toxic characteristic of a product destined for use in humans, animals, and in Agriculture. Many herbal Medicinal products are available in the Ugandan Market but there is no data on their safety profiles. In this study, Artavol®, a malaria-preventive herbal tea, was studied for its acute toxic effects. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) guidelines were used in this study. Gas Chromatography-Mass spectrophotometry analysis (GC-MS) was conducted on Artavol® in order to determine the compounds present in it. The extract yield for Artavol® was 4.7%, it was found safe up to a limit dose of 5000mg/kg and GC-MS analysis of the product indicated 40 compounds in the extract. Artavol® was found to contain artemisinin (dihydroartemisinin and deoxyartemisinin) and coumarin compounds among others. the current finding confirms the earlier reported safety of Artavol® up to 5000mg/kg it also confirmed the presence of multiple compounds earlier reported like coumarins but also found compounds reported to have been removed from the product during processing including; dihydroartemisinin and deoxyartemisinin. Further deartemisation is recommended to satisfy the claimed completed deartemisation.

Keywords: GC-MS analysis, Acute toxicity, antimalaria tea, Artavol, Artemesia annua