Abstract

FERNANDEZ-CALIENES VALDES, Aymé et al. Evaluation of toxicity of Cuban plant extracts with possible antiparasitic action based on the use of Artemia salina larvae. Rev Cubana Med Trop [online]. 2009, vol.61, n.3, pp. 254-258. ISSN 1561-3054.

INTRODUCTION: Artemia salina lethality assay is considered a useful tool to determine preliminary toxicity of plant extracts. In our labs some plant species are studied because of their antiparasitic potentials. OBJECTIVE: to evaluate A. salina nauplii mortality caused by ethanol extracts of Cuban medicinal plants. METHODS: A. salina larvae were exposed to four concentrations of 35 ethanol extracts from 34 plant species, for 24 hours. Mean Lethal Concentration (LC₅₀) was determined to classify each extract into the categories of extremely toxic, highly toxic, mildly toxic or non toxic. RESULTS: out of the tested extracts, only 5 (Artemisia absinthium, Luffa cylindrica, Melia azedarach, Melaleuca leucadendron and Simarouba glauca) were classified as extremely or highly toxic, 13 as mildly toxic whereas 17 extracts (48,5 %) were non toxic exhibiting LC₅₀ values over 1 000 µg/mL. CONCLUSIONS: most of the evaluated extracts showed low toxicity, which is a positive result. The five extremely toxic extracts will not be included in further studies.

Keywords : toxicity; plant extracts; Artemia salina.

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