Cytotoxic Correlation of Selected Nigerian Ethnomedicinal Plants Using Brine Shrimp Lethality Test

Abstract

Cytotoxicity is the toxicity caused due to the action of chemotherapeutic agents on living cells and its mechanism lies in the ability of chemotherapeutic agents to oxidatively attack vital components inside cells, creating reactive free radicals that can cause adverse effects in the nucleus, proteins, and/or lipids. There are several ethnomedicinal plants in Nigeria used in the amelioration of several illnesses, however, information on their cytotoxic assessments are rare. Hence, the present study was to assess the cytotoxic correlation of selected Nigerian ethnomedicinal plants using brine shrimp lethality test. Data show that calculated LC50 of the extracts ranged from 83.71-265.90 μg/cm³, with K. africana having the highest anticancer activity with LC50 83.71 μg/cm³. The present result is an indicative of the presence of cytotoxic compounds that are attributable to the bioactive components with high phenolic contents derived from plant parts (fruit, leaf, seed) that accounted for the pharmacological effects or potential against various human diseases such as cancer. The cytotoxicity for the various plant parts’ extracts showed concentration dependent manner and it was determine candidate plants for isolation of cytotoxic principle.