PRELIMINARY THIN LAYER CHROMATOGRAPHY AND EVALUATION OF THE CYTOTOXICITY OF ETHANOL EXTRACT OF THE LEAVES OF MUCANA PRURIENS LINN. (FABACEAE)

Abstract

The increasing interest on ethno medicine for the discovery of therapeutic agents has caused the increased scientific quest to investigate the phytochemical, biochemical and possible ethno medicinal importance of Mucana pruriens (devil beans). This work evaluated the cytotoxicity of the leaves of Mucana pruriens. The Bench-top assay method was used to evaluate the cytotoxicity of the ethanol extract, and the chloroform and petroleum ether fractions of the leaves of M. pruriens leaf administered to tadpoles of Ranicepsranninus at concentrations of 20, 100, 200, 400 and 600 ?g/ml respectively. After 24 hours, the crude ethanol extract gave the highest activity by producing mortality of 5.56 ± 0.33% at concentration of 200 ?g/ml which increased to 100% at concentrations of 400 and 600 ?g/ml. The chloroform fraction produced mean death of 5.56 ± 0.33% at concentration of 200 ?g/ml, 44.44 ± 0.33% at concentrations of 400 ?g/ml and 83.33± 0.88% at 600 ?g/ml. The petroleum ether fraction did not exert any mortality on the tadpoles. The crude ethanol extract had the highest mortality against the tadpoles and the cytotoxic activity is dose dependent. This study shows that the ethanol extract of Mucana pruriens posses cytotoxic activity and could be useful against tumour cells and might be a useful lead in the development of drugs for the management of tumor related diseases.