Comparative toxicity assessment of three Tephrosia species on Artemia salina and animal cell lines

Abstract

Background: Tephrosia calophylla, Tephrosia maxima and Tephrosia purpurea are generally used in the treatment of various ailments including cancer by the folklore of Indian subcontinent. Materials and Methods: The powdered root of three plants were separately extracted with chloroform and then subjected to preliminary chemical screening. The total phenolic and fl avonoid content were estimated by using gallic acid and quercetin as standard. Brine shrimp hatchability and lethality tests were done by hatching the cysts of Artemia salina in brine solution. As these parameters can be associated to tumor cells, the investigation was extrapolated to animal cell lines, Daltons Lymphoma Ascites (DLA) and Erlisch Ascites Carcinoma (EAC). Trypan blue exclusion method was adopted for this screening. In all experiments dose selected were between the ranges of 10 and 200 μg/mL. Results: Preliminary chemical screening revealed the presence of carbohydrates, proteins, alkaloids, tannins and fl avonoids for T. calophylla and T. maxima; proteins, alkaloids, tannins and fl avonoids for T. purpurea. The total phenolic and fl avonoid content was found to be highest in the case of T. calophylla followed by T. maxima and then by T. purpurea. It was observed that in all the cytotoxicity tests performed T. calophylla was proved to be most potent followed by T. maxima and then by T. purpurea. The results thus obtained were found to correlate with the values obtained for total phenolic and fl avonoid content. Conclusion: The present investigation revealed that all three species of Tephrosia to be potent cytotoxic agents. Increasing order of cytotoxicity can be denoted as T.purpurea<T.maxima<T.calophylla. Further studies have to be performed to identify the chemical entity responsible for effi cient cytotoxicity which may help in the development of suitable lead compounds.

Cytotoxic Activity of <em>Vernonia mespilifolia</em> Less Used in the Folk Medicine in the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa

“…The inhibitory effect of Vernonia mespilifolia crude extracts could have attributed to the toxic compounds present in the extracts that have ovicidal property. Also reports have shown that secondary metabolites in plants could have effect on the embryonic development [27]. The results of the effect of exposure time on hatchability showed that the sensitivity of A. salina cyst to the plant extracts was strongly dependent upon exposure period ( Figure 3).…”

Antimicrobial activity of Brazilian plants of the genera Leguminosae and Myrtaceae

“…These results are in agreement with data from others species of this genus used as folkloric medicines in the Indian subcontinent: T. calophylla, T. maxima and T. purpurea. Root chloroform extracts from these plants were active to hatchability and lethality of brine shrimp (LC 50 :70.7 to 100.0 µg/ml) assays, and these extracts were cytotoxic to animal cell-lines (Subhadra et al, 2011). According to these authors, the most active extracts bore high contents of phenolic compounds and flavonoids.…”

“…The species Tephrosia calophylla, Tephrosia purpurea and Tephrosia maxima of this genus was described in the treatment of various ailments, including cancer, in the Indian subcontinent (Subhadra et al, 2011), piscicides and insecticides (Cronquist, 1981).…”

Chemical composition and antioxidant activity of extracts from Erythroxylum suberosum A.St. Hil.leaves

“…The method is rapid, reliable and has been used for over 30 years in toxicological studies (Subhadra, et al, 2011). It consists of exposing larvae to test sample in saline solution, and lethality is evaluated after 24h.…”

“…It was possible to identifycatechin, epicatechin, rutin, isoquercitrin and quercetin by comparison with commercial standards (Figure 1). Antioxidants are compounds that inhibit oxidizing chain reactions and can stabilize and deactivate free radicals before they attack their biological targets (Sousa, et al, 2007;Velioglu, et al, 1998).…”