Kundishora Anesu, Sithole Simbarashe, Mukanganyama Stanley
School of Pharmacy, College of Health Sciences, University of Zimbabwe, Mt. Pleasant, Harare, Zimbabwe.
Department of Biochemistry, University of Zimbabwe, Mt. Pleasant, Harare, Zimbabwe.
J Toxicol. 2020 Oct 28;2020:8831545. doi: 10.1155/2020/8831545. eCollection 2020.
Despite plants being a rich source of useful chemical compounds with different pharmacological properties, some of these compounds may be toxic to humans. , among its other important pharmacological activities, has been shown to have significant antiproliferative activity on cancer cell lines. Toxicity studies are required to determine the safety profile of in the consideration of its potential pharmaceutical benefits as a source of lead compounds in cancer therapy. The effects of on both the integrity of the erythrocyte membrane and on normal cells were determined. The dried leaf powder of was used in serial exhaustive extraction procedures using hexane, dichloromethane, ethyl acetate, acetone, ethanol, methanol, and water as solvents in addition to extraction using DCM: methanol in equal ratio. Alkaloids, flavonoids, and saponins were isolated from the ethanol extract. The leaf extracts were tested for haemolytic activity on sheep erythrocytes at concentrations of 0.625 to 5 mg/ml. The extracts were also tested for toxicity activity on normal mammalian cells such as the BALB/c mice peritoneal cells using the MTT (3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide) at the concentrations of 6.3 to 50 g/ml. In the haemolysis assays, none of the plant extracts had a significant haemolytic activity with the saponin-enriched extract having the maximum haemolytic activity of 12.2% for a concentration of 5 mg/ml. In the MTT cell viability assay, none of the 11 plant extracts had significant cytotoxicity. The water extract, however, had significant ( < 0.01) proliferative activity towards the murine immune cells at all concentrations leaf extracts were, therefore, not toxic to both erythrocytes and immune cells, and the water extract may have immunostimulatory effects. It is concluded that leaf extracts are not toxic and, therefore, our results support the use of the plant for ethnomedicinal use.
尽管植物是具有不同药理特性的有用化合物的丰富来源，但其中一些化合物可能对人类有毒。 除了其他重要的药理活性外， 已被证明对癌细胞系具有显著的抗增殖活性。考虑到其作为癌症治疗中先导化合物来源的潜在药用益处，需要进行毒性研究以确定 的安全性。测定了 对红细胞膜完整性和正常细胞的影响。除了使用等比例的二氯甲烷：甲醇进行提取外，还使用己烷、二氯甲烷、乙酸乙酯、丙酮、乙醇、甲醇和水作为溶剂，对 的干叶粉末进行了连续的彻底提取程序。从乙醇提取物中分离出生物碱、黄酮类化合物和皂苷。在0.625至5毫克/毫升的浓度下测试了叶提取物对绵羊红细胞的溶血活性。还在6.3至50微克/毫升的浓度下，使用MTT（3-(4,5-二甲基噻唑-2-基)-2,5-二苯基四氮唑溴盐）测试了提取物对正常哺乳动物细胞如BALB/c小鼠腹腔细胞的毒性活性。在溶血试验中，没有一种植物提取物具有显著的溶血活性，富含皂苷的提取物在5毫克/毫升浓度下的最大溶血活性为12.2%。在MTT细胞活力试验中，11种植物提取物均无显著细胞毒性。然而，水提取物在所有浓度下对小鼠免疫细胞均具有显著的（<0.01）增殖活性。因此，叶提取物对红细胞和免疫细胞均无毒，水提取物可能具有免疫刺激作用。得出的结论是， 叶提取物无毒，因此，我们的结果支持将该植物用于民族医学用途。
