Brine Shrimp Cytotoxic and <i>Lemna minor</i> Phytotoxic Evaluations of the Methanol Extracts of the Leaves, Stem and Root Barks of <i>Sacrocephalus latifolius</i>

Abstract

This work was aimed at evaluating the probable toxicity of the methanol extract of the leaf, stem bark and root of Sacrocephalus latifolius on Artemia nauplii and fronds of Lemna minor. The powder samples of the three morphological parts were independently extracted with soxhlet extractor apparatus using 95% methanol and were dried with aid of ritory evaporator at 40ºC. The extracts were subjected to biological activities involving brine shrimp cytotoxicity and Lemna minor test for phytotoxicity at 10-100 μg /mL respectively. The experiment was done in replicates of three. Concentration-dependent cytotoxic and phytotoxic activities were recorded for the extracts. The results revealed that extract of the leaves demonstrated significant cytotoxic and phytotoxic activities over the other parts of the plant. At 10μg/mL, the three extracts recorded little or no cytotoxic activity. However, at the maximum concentration of 1000 μg /mL, cytotoxicities of 66.67 and 3.33% were recorded for extracts of the leaf and root bark respectively, while the extract of the stem bark showed no activity. However, the LC₅₀ of the leaf was 467.74μg /mL, and that of the other extracts were observed to be ˃1000μg /mL. The results for phytotoxicity followed a similar trend with the extracts of the leaf and root bark recording 52.96 and 23.33 % phytotoxicities respectively at 1000 μg /mL. Having shown a higher activity over the other extracts, the leaf extract of S. latifolius could serves as a natural alternative pesticide and weedicide.

Keywords: Sacrocephalus latifolius, phytotoxicity, cytotoxicity, fronds, Artemia nauplii, Lemna minor