Abstract: BACKGROUND AND AIM: To study teratogenicity of glycosides of chaenomeles speciossa (GCS) on ICR mice during the sensitive period. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The pregnant ICR mice were divided into five groups in this test, GSC groups (83.1,332.5, 1330.0 mg/kg) , one positive control group (CP) and one negative control group(0.5％CMC-Na). Every group consisted of 15 pregnant mice at least .The mice of the GCS groups and the negative group were treated with 0.02 ml/g orally during the period of organ formation(from Day 6 to Day 15,once a day),while the positive control mice received 0.01 ml/g intramuscular injection on Day 10. The pregnant mice were killed by cervical vertebral dislocation on Day 19, then the numbers of corpus lutea, living embryo, dead fetus and absorbed fetus were counted, the sex and appearance of the mice embryos were examined, tail length and weight were measured .After that half of living embryos of every pregnant mouse were used to study the bone development after ethanol fixing, potassium hydroxide melting, Alizarin Red staining and glycerin transparencing. The other living embryos were examined for the visceral development after Bouin's solution fixing. RESULTS:Compared with the negative control group, no abnormalities in the living embryos appearance, bones and viscera were found in any of the three dosages groups, while maternal body weight of highest dosage of GCS(1 330.0 mg/kg) increased slowly. CONCLUSION: GCS(83.1- 1 330.0 mg/kg) had no embryonic and teratogenic toxicity in this test.

Key words: glycosides of chaenomeles speciossa, ICR mice, teratogenicity