Cytotoxic Potential of Fertility Booster Medicinal Plants as Evident through Brine Shrimp Toxicity Assay

Abstract

The study was designed to check the toxicity of five fertility enhancing medicinal plants viz root of sweet flag, seed of radish, root of land-calotrops, leaves of peppermint and flower of red cabbage through brine shrimp toxicity assay. Brine shrimp eggs hatching was optimized by applying three temperature levels (25°C, 27°C and 29°C), three salinities (10 ppt, 30 ppt and 35 ppt), two food demands (0.8 g and 1.6 g) and two levels of shrimp egg (1 g/l and 1.5 g/l). Five concentrations (1200, 2500, 5000, 10000 and 15000 µg/ml) of aqueous extracts of five fertility enhancing plants were tested for 24 h incubation to check mortality of brine shrimp nauplii. Mean comparison of brine shrimp cytotoxicity assay revealed noticeable deviations from the both positive and negative controls. Alive percentage of nauplii observed in the aqueous extract of sweet flag root and radish seed ranged from 0 to 10%, land-calotrops root extract from 0 to 22.5%, peppermint leaves extract from 3 to 47.5% and for red cabbage extract ranged from 0 to 15%. Dose dependent death rate was only observed in red cabbage extract while other plant extracts given random death rate of nauplii as compare to +ve control (Ethyle methane sulphonate). Therefore, it can be finally concluded that all tested plants were toxic to brine shrimp, however comparatively higher toxicity was observed by flag root extract.