Open Access Research Article
Roy and Dey, J Pharmacogn Nat Prod 2016, 2:4
DOI: 10.4172/2472-0992.1000126
Journal of
Pharmacognosy & Natural Products
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ISSN: 2472-0992
J Pharmacogn Nat Prod, an open access journal
ISSN: 2472-0992
Volume 2 • Issue 4 • 1000126
Abstract
Lysimachia ramosa is a traditional medicinal plant, consumed by different tribes of northeast India to cure
intestinal helminth infections. In order to measure the toxic effects of the plant on its consumer, if any, the present
in vivo study was carried out on mice using sub-lethal doses of crude ethanol extract viz. 100 and 200 mg/kg
body weight for 14 days. Surface topographical and ultrastructural observations on liver, kidney and intestine of
treated mice revealed marked deformation and destruction accompanied by quantitative changes in liver and kidney
markers like aspartate aminotransferase, alanine aminotransferase and creatinine in comparison to the control mice.
The results showed that consumption of crude plant extract at a dose 100 mg and above per kg body weight
continuously for long time may cause toxic effects to its consumer.
Cytotoxic Effects of Lysimachia ramosa Wall. Ex Duby (Primulaceae) on
Swiss Albino Mice
Bishnupada Roy* and Paulomi Dey
Department of Zoology, North-Eastern Hill University, Shillong, India
Keywords: Lysimachia ramosa; Albino mice; Toxicity; Green
medicine; Phytoproducts
Introduction
Te concept of “Green medicine” is based on the fact that
phytoproducts are believed to be safe, easily available, cheap and
more dependable compared to the highly expensive synthetic drugs,
most of which have undesired efects on its consumers [1]. However,
many herbal medicines could be potentially injurious to human
health, because large numbers of these products exert toxic efects
on haematological parameters, liver, kidney, heart, brain, intestine
and reproductive tissues of its consumers [2-4]. In spite of undesired
side efects of traditional treatment using natural products, demands
for plant products are gradually increasing both in developing and
developed countries for treatment of diferent diseases or as food
supplements [5]. Phyto-products related market in a developing
country like India is expanding at a rate of 20% per year, where 50%
of total foras are known to have medicinal potential and about 70%
population consume traditional medicinal plants to cure diferent
diseases [6-8].
Lysimachia ramosa Wall. Ex Duby belong to the family Primulaceae
is a shrub bearing yellow fower, grow in damp condition. Aqueous
extract of its leaves are widely used by diferent tribes in northeast India
to cure intestinal helminthic infection. Preliminary investigation carried
out on diferent helminthic parasites revealed that alcoholic crude
extract of the plant indeed have anthelmintic properties, as it paralyses
and kills trematode, cestode and nematode within 2.22, 4.51 and 26.45
h respectively, when exposed to 50 mg of the crude plant extract per
ml of phosphate bufer saline [9]. Tus, the result obtained through the
in vitro experiments clearly indicates that the crude alcoholic extract
of L. ramosa justifes its use in traditional healing system. However,
no literature is available about the extent of toxic efect of the plant, if
any on its consumer. Terefore, an in vivo experiment was carried out
to evaluate the cytotoxic efect of the plant in Swiss albino mice taking
blood, intestine, liver and kidney as target tissues.
Materials and Methods
Chemicals
All the chemicals and reagents used were obtained from
Himedia, India (L-aspartic acid, Alanine, α-ketoglutarate, 2,4
*Corresponding author: Bishnupada Roy, Department of Zoology, North-
Eastern Hill University, Shillong 793 022, India, Tel: 00913642722331; E-mail:
bishnuroy12@rediffmail.com
Received November 01, 2016; Accepted November 25, 2016; Published
November 29, 2016
Citation: Roy B, Dey P (2016) Cytotoxic Effects of Lysimachia ramosa Wall. Ex
Duby (Primulaceae) on Swiss Albino Mice. J Pharmacogn Nat Prod 2: 126. doi:
10.4172/2472-0992.1000126
Copyright: © 2016 Roy B, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under
the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted
use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and
source are credited.
dinitrophenylhydrazine, Pyruvate, Sodium hydroxide, Potassium
chloride, Sodium chloride, Di-sodium hydrogen phosphate, Potassium
dihydrogen phosphate, Picric acid, EDTA disodium salt, Creatinine),
Jebsen & Jessen GnbH & Co., Germany (Ethanol, Dimethyl sulphoxide)
and SRL, India (Chloroform).
Preparation of plant extract
Plants (Lysimachia ramosa) were procured from diferent parts of
Jaintia Hills of Meghalaya, India. Leaves were separated from the stem,
thoroughly washed with deionized water and dried in shade. Te dried
leaves were crushed into fne powder with the help of electric grinder
and then refuxed with ethanol (100 g/l) for 6 h at 60
o
C. Te solution
obtained was fltered through Whatman flter paper (No. 1) and
then evaporated to complete dryness at 50
o
C. Te crude extract was
obtained as powder material, which was kept at 4
o
C until further use.
2 h prior to experiment, diferent concentrations of the extract viz. 100
mg and 200 mg/kg body weight were prepared by dissolving the extract
in 0.9% Phosphate Bufer Saline (PBS, pH 7-7.3) having 0.1% Dimethyl
Sulfoxide (DMSO). In traditional use, diferent tribes consume 50-75
mg/kg body weight, twice a day, continuously for 15 days.
Animals and treatment
Experiment on animals was performed in accordance with the
Animal Ethics Committee’s guidelines for laboratory animal use and
care. A total of 18 adult Swiss albino mice weighing between 22-28 g
were purchased from Pasture Institute, Shillong, India. Tey were kept
in metal cages in the animal house having uniform temperature of 25
o
C
with 12 h light and 12 h dark periodicity. Te animals were fed up with
standard feed and water ad libitum. All the mice were acclimatized for