Journal of Clinical Toxicology
Open Access
ISSN: 2161-0495
+44 1478 350008
ISSN: 2161-0495
+44 1478 350008
Baragamaarachchi R Y1, Weearasena O V D S J1, Handunnetti S M1 and Samarasekara R2
Scientific Tracks Abstracts: J Clin Toxicol
Walidda antidysenterica (Apocynaceae) is widely used in traditional medicinal practices in Sri Lanka and in Asia as a remedy for
respiratory disorders, hematuria, spermatorrhoea, chest affections, helminthic disorders, dressing the oozing wounds, jaundice,
haemorrhoids, epilepsy, rheumatoid arthritis, osteoporosis, bacterial diseases and gut mobility disorders. Juice extracted from the
bark is administrated to treat mouth sores. Flowers are used to treat snake bites, and leaves are used to treat skin disorders such
as psoriasis, dermatitis etc. Despite of its medicinal value, it was reported that this plant contain pyrrolizidine alkaloids (a potent
toxic compound). Therefore the current study investigated the in vitro toxicity of ethanol leaf, stem bark and flower extracts of W.
antidysenterica. The cytotoxic and genotoxic activity of extracts were evaluated against human lymphocytes using trypan blue dye
exclusion assay and alkaline comet assay. All extracts exhibited decrease in cell viability (< 70%) at concentrations above 50 μg/ml
following 18 hour exposure, except flower extract which retained >80% cell viability even at 1000 μg/ml. Comet assay results indicated
that the leaf extract induced DNA damages at the concentrations of 30, 40 and 50 μg/ml (p<0.05) and stem bark extract induced DNA
damages at the concentrations of 40 and 50 μg/ml (p<0.05) compared to positive control (H2O2). Flower extract did not induce DNA
damages even at 50 μg/ml (p>0.05). In conclusion, the results suggest that the flower extract was neither cytotoxic nor genotoxic
whereas leaf extract showed significant cytotoxic and genotoxic activity compared to stem bark extract in a concentration dependent
manner.
Baragamaarachchi R Y is a first year PhD student who graduated with a first class in BSc Genetics from University of Bangalore. She obtained MSc in Molecular Life Sciences in 2014 from University of Colombo, Sri Lanka. Her research interests lie in Molecular Biology, Immunology, Medicinal plants, Genetics and Microbiology. She has served as a resource person at workshops based on Immunological techniques and awarded at 2nd International Conference on Frontiers in Molecular Life Sciences held> in Sri Lanka (2014), for outstanding poster presentation.