Rotenone (1) is a component of the roots of several plant species: Derris ellip tica, Lonchocarpus utilis, L. urucu (Haley 1978) and Millettia pachycarpa (Singhal et al. 1982). Derris and cube resins have been approved for use as insecticides on fruits, vegetables, and forage crops and for indoor and outdoor use to control various pests, including mosquitos and their larvae (EPA 1972). Derris roots have been used for clearing ponds of fish (Chowdhury et al. 1981). Rotenone has also an antifeedant effect to stored-product insects (Noack and Schmidt 1981).The effect of rotenone on mammalian cells has been studied on: Chinese ham ster cultured cells (Meisner and Sorensen 1966, Barham and Brinkley 1976 a,b) and Ehrlich ascites tumor cells cultured in vitro (Loffier and Schneider 1982). Rotenone has been shown to be tumorigenic in the rat (Gosalvez and Merchan 1973), and EPA has scheduled a reevaluation of its possible hazards to man and the environ ment (Anon 1978). Sandhu and Waters (1980) in their review on some chemical pesticides reported that rotenone is a potent spindle tubule poison, and suggested an evaluation of its mutagenicity.In the present study, the effect of rotenone on the mitosis of Vicia faba root tips has been investigated.
Materials and methodsVicia faba seeds of the same season (V. Giza 1) and rotenone3 were used in the present study. Two types of treatment were conducted: a-Seed-soaking: Sterilized seeds were immersed for 24 hours in distilled water, then for another 24 hours in rotenone solutions. After the treatment seeds were washed throughly with water, germinated in rolls of filter paper in large dishes with distilled water at the bottom. Roots were cut when they were 3 days old and fixed immediately in acetic alcohol (1:3). b-Root-treatment:Lateral roots of Vicia faba were treated for 4 hours with the experimental agents: saturated aqueous solution of rotenone and saturated solution of rotenone in Tween2: water mixture (1:99).The controls were
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.