Methanol, ethanol, Tween 20 and dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) are widely used as dissolving agents in Artemia salina lethality test (aka brine shrimp lethality test [BSLT]) to screen the pharmaceutical properties of natural products. Nevertheless, there is lack of toxicity level of these solvents against brine shrimp. High concentration of these organic solvent might be toxic for this zoology invertebrate and interfere in the experimental outcomes. To avoid this, permissible concentration of the solvents used in BSLT was identified. BSLT was performed to evaluate the toxicity effect of Tween 20, methanol, ethanol and DMSO at 24 h post-treatment time point against A. salina. The suggested maximum working concentration (v/v) for DMSO, methanol, ethanol was found to be 1.25% and that for Tween 20 was 0.16%. LC50 for the solvents were 8.5% (DMSO), 6.4% (methanol), 3.4% (ethanol) and 2.5% (Tween 20). The findings have shown a toxicity level among the solvents in descending order as Tween 20 > ethanol > methanol > DMSO. DMSO is a safer solvent to be used in BSLT compared with other tested solvents, whereas Tween 20 has been shown to be the most stringent solvent among the tested solvents. The findings are resourcefully useful to avoid interference of solvents in the assessment of natural products using BSLT.
The rubber tree (Hevea brasiliensis) extracts are becoming increasingly visible in pharmaceutical and therapeutical research. The present study is aimed at examining the specific anti-proliferation property of H. brasiliensis latex B-serum sub-fractions against human breast cancer epithelial cell lines MCF-7 and MDA-MB231. The results showed that the latex whole B-serum and DBP sub-fraction exerted a specific anti-proliferation activity against cancer-origin cells MDA-MB231 but had little effect on non-cancer-origin cells. On the other hand, the anti-proliferative activity was diminished in the pre-heated B-serum fractions. With the low toxicity that the B-serum demonstrated previously in Brine Shrimp Lethality Test (BSLT), the present results suggest the potential use of the B-serum sub-fractions in cancer treatment.
Spider lily (Hymenocallis littoralis) belongs to Amaryllidaceae family is a well-known plant species for its medicinal properties. The inhibitory effects of H. littoralis methanol sonication extracts were evaluated for wound healing activity. This is the first report on the wound healing activity of Malaysian origin H. littoralis. The bulb, flower, root, anther, stem and leaves of H. littoralis methanol sonication extracts were used for scratch-wound assay. The cell line was treated with two different concentrations; 1 and 10μg/ml of extracts. The extracts were prepared freshly by dissolving in sterile phosphate saline buffer (PBS) and the healing activity was observed from 2, 4, 8, 12, 24, 36 and 48 h. The bulb, root, stem and anther methanol extracts demonstrated active wound healing activities at 1 μg mL-1at 36 h of treatment. At the low concentration the bulb, root, stem and anther methanol extracts heals the wound compared to leaf and flower extracts. It's demonstrated that these extracts contain effective phytochemical substances which are responsible for wound healing process. This finding suggests the potential application of H. littoralis methanol extract in wound healing activity.