Abstract
BackgroundThe current era is facing challenges in the management of neoplasia and weeds control. The currently available anti-cancer and herbicidal drugs are associated with some serious side effects. Therefore numerous researchers are trying to discover and develop plant based alternative particularly for the rational management of cancer and weed control. Teucrium stocksianum possess antioxidant and analgesic activities. The current study was designed to evaluate crude saponins (CS), methanolic extract and sub-fractions of T. stocksianum for cytotoxic and phytotoxic potentials. CS, methanolic extract and sub-fractions were extracted from powdered plant material using different solvents. Cytotoxic potential of the extracts at a dose of 10, 100 and 1000 μg/ml were evaluated against Brine shrimp’s nauplii. Phytotoxic assay also performed at the same concentration against Lemna minor. Etoposide and Paraquat were used as positive controls in cytotoxic and phytotoxic assays respectively.ResultsThe percent yield of crude saponins was (5%). CS demonstrated tremendous brine shrimp lethality showing < 10 μg/ml LC50. The n-hexane (HF) and chloroform fractions (CF) demonstrated excellent cytotoxicity with 80 and 55 μg/ml LC50 respectively. Whereas the methanolic extract (TSME), ethyl acetate (EAF) and aqueous fractions (AF) revealed moderate cytotoxicity showing 620, 860 and 1000 μg/ml LC50 values respectively. In phytotoxic assay profound inhibition was displayed by HF (96.67%) and TSME (95.56%, 30 μg/ml LC50) against the growth of Lemna minor at 1000 μg/ml respectively. Both CF and EAF demonstrated profound phytoxicity (93.33%) respectively at highest concentration (1000 μg/ml), while AF and CS demonstrated weak phytotoxicity with 1350 and 710 μg/ml LC50 values respectively.ConclusionCytotoxicity and phytotoxicity assays indicated that the crude saponins, n-hexane and chloroform fractions of T. stocksianum could play a vital role in the treatment of neoplasia and as potential natural herbicides. Therefore these sub-fractions are recommended for further investigation with the aim to isolate novel anti-cancer and herbicidal compounds.
Highlights
The current era is facing challenges in the management of neoplasia and weeds control
Cytotoxicity and phytotoxicity assays indicated that the crude saponins, n-hexane and chloroform fractions of T. stocksianum could play a vital role in the treatment of neoplasia and as potential natural herbicides
These sub-fractions are recommended for further investigation with the aim to isolate novel anti-cancer and herbicidal compounds
Summary
The current era is facing challenges in the management of neoplasia and weeds control. Numerous researchers are trying to discover and develop plant based alternative for the rational management of cancer and weed control. The current study was designed to evaluate crude saponins (CS), methanolic extract and sub-fractions of T. stocksianum for cytotoxic and phytotoxic potentials. Researchers are trying to explore various types of plants for their potential tendency to treat various challenging diseases. The most prominent disease which demands an urgent attention and rational investigation flavonoids and phenols possessing antioxidant activity [6,7]. Saponins are group of compounds which have a number of pharmacological activities including antiinflammatory, antioxidant, anticancer, insecticidal, anthelmintic and antimicrobial [8,9,10,11,12]. The plants having allelopathic activity helped in the development of safe and potent herbicidal agents which increased the per acre production in agricultural sector [14]
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