Assessment of cisplatin, etoposide, vinblastine and piper betle leaf extract on some attributes of cell division in lathyrus sativus L.

Abstract

The effective potentiality of anticancerous drugs, namely, cisplatin, etoposide and vinblastine, as well as the ethanolic extract of Piper betle L. leaves, is evaluated (concentrations used: 0.001, 0.01, 0.1, 1.0 and 10.0 ìM for vinblastine; 25, 50, 75, 100, 125 and 150 ìM for other test materials) on germinating grass pea (Lathyrus sativus L.) seedlings in relation to radicle length and mitotic index. Furthermore, inhibition in the frequency of dividing polyploid cells induced due to prior treatments of colchicine (0.5%, 8 h) and in vitro callus growth are also assessed following treatments with different concentrations of the test materials. The objective of the present study is to determine the effectivity of the test materials on a plant species with the view to develop a plant system (convenient to use and cost effective) as a model for preliminary screening of novel anticancerous drugs as well as plant extract(s) possessing such potentiality for further exploration.