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• Yuet Ping, K
• Darah, I
• Yusuf, U
• Yeng, C
• Sasidharan, S
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• Yuet Ping, K
• Darah, I
• Yusuf, U
• Yeng, C
• Sasidharan, S
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• Yuet Ping, K
• Darah, I
• Yusuf, U
• Yeng, C
• Sasidharan, S

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Molecules 2012, 17(7), 7782-7791; doi:10.3390/molecules17077782

Article

Genotoxicity of Euphorbia hirta: An Allium cepa Assay

Kwan Yuet Ping ¹ , Ibrahim Darah ² , Umi Kalsom Yusuf ³ , Chen Yeng ⁴  and Sreenivasan Sasidharan ^1,*

¹ Institute for Research in Molecular Medicine (INFORMM), Universiti Sains Malaysia, 11800 Pulau Pinang, Malaysia ² School of Biological Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 11800 Minden, Penang, Malaysia ³ Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia ⁴ Dental Research & Training Unit, and Oral Cancer Research and Coordinating Centre (OCRCC), Faculty of Dentistry, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Received: 23 April 2012; in revised form: 20 June 2012 / Accepted: 21 June 2012 / Published: 26 June 2012

(This article belongs to the Section Natural Products)

Download PDF Full-Text [444 KB, uploaded 26 June 2012 09:16 CEST]

Abstract: The potential genotoxic effects of methanolic extracts of Euphorbia hirta which is commonly used in traditional medicine to treat a variety of diseased conditions including asthma, coughs, diarrhea and dysentery was investigated using Allium cepa assay. The extracts of 125, 250, 500 and 1,000 µg/mL were tested on root meristems of A. cepa. Ethylmethanesulfonate was used as positive control and distilled water was used as negative control. The result showed that mitotic index decreased as the concentrations of E. hirta extract increased. A dose-dependent increase of chromosome aberrations was also observed. Abnormalities scored were stickiness, c-mitosis, bridges and vagrant chromosomes. Micronucleated cells were also observed at interphase. Result of this study confirmed that the methanol extracts of E. hirta exerted significant genotoxic and mitodepressive effects at 1,000 µg/mL.

Keywords: genotoxicity; Allium cepa; ethylmethane sulfonate; mitotic index; chromosome aberrations

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