Brine Shrimp (Artemia salina) Toxicity Assay of selected medicinal plants in Tamil Nadu
 
M.Maridass and G. Raju

Abstract
 
The brine shrimp lethality bioassay is extensively used for the isolation of antitumour and cytotoxic agents from several medicinal plants. In the aim of the present study, to assess as cytotoxic activity of ethanolic extract of six species were Cinnamomum wightii Meisner, Garcinia gummi-gutta (L.) Robs., Michelia nilagrica Zenk. Tylophora indica (Burm. f.) Merr., Hemidesmus indicus (L.) R. Br. and Gymnema sylvestre (Retz.) R. Br. ex Schult using by brine shrimp lethality bioassay method. The results of the present study, maximum cytotoxic activity of both plants of Gymnema sylvestre and Michelia nilagrica ethanolic extracts were observed. The highest activity was found for ethanolic extract of Gymnema sylvestre and Michelia nilagrica with LC₅₀ value of 0.56 and 0.89µg/ml respectively. These results suggest that the leaves of Cinnamomum wightii Meisner, Garcinia gummi-gutta (L.) Robs., Michelia nilagrica Zenk. Tylophora indica (Burm. f.) Merr., Hemidesmus indicus (L.) R. Br. and Gymnema sylvestre (Retz.) R. Br. ex Schult may be a promising source of novel anticancer agents.
 
Key words: Brine shrimp lethality, cytotoxic, medicinal plants

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Volume No 7(1)                                                                       April,2017