Cytotoxicities of five medicinal plants, known in local tradition for their anti-inflammatory and anti-tumor properties, were evaluated against brine shrimp, Artemia salina. The medicinal plants tested were Aristolochia brachteolata (AB), Acanthospermum hispidum (AH), Azadirachta indica (AI), Nerium oleander (NO) and Calatropis procera (CP). Ethanol extracts of the plants showed a marked significant activity as shown by the values of p ≤0.05 obtained using one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA). Their lethal concentrations (LC50) were in the order of 36.9µg/ml (for AI seeds), 50µg/ml (for AI whole plant), 131.6µg/ml (for CP latex), 135µg/ml (for CP leaves), 159µg/ml (for AH seeds), 166µg/ml (for AH whole plant), 175.6µg/ml (for CP whole plant), and 670µg/ml (for NO whole plant). The role of gum Arabic (GA) in alleviating the cytotoxicities of these plants was investigated since studies have linked some of these plants, such as Aristolochia [1,2] with nephrotoxicity and GA diet supplementation with kidney malfunctioning symptoms reduction [3]. Our results show that the toxicity of these plants extracts and that of known toxic chemicals such as CuSO4 (Cu-LC50 2.88 ppm) and the fish poison rotenone (LC50 1.23×10-2 ppm) have been significantly reduced by GA. Toxicity reduction ranged between 30% to 280%.
References: [1] Steward, M.J. Steenkamp, V. (2001) Therap. Drug Monitor. 23: 698–706. [2] Vanherweghem JL,. et al.(1993) Lancet 341: 387–391. [3] Bliss, Z. et al. (1996) Am. J. Clin. Nut. 63: 392–398.
