Keywords
Toxicity, hydro-alcoholic extract, Peruvian Amazon, Artemia salina
Toxicity, hydro-alcoholic extract, Peruvian Amazon, Artemia salina
Medicinal plants have been used since ancient times, receiving interest in their healing potential because of their active components1,2. Some developing countries use plants in primary health care, and in 2015 it was estimated that 25.6 billion dollars were spent worldwide on plant consumption and its derivatives, expected to increase to 35.4 billion dollars by 20203,4. Due to the high consumption of plants for medicinal purposes, it is necessary to study their toxicology in order to avoid side effects.
The Amazon rainforest in the east of Peru has great diversity of flora, especially monocotyledons (Cocos nucifera, Mauritia flexuosa and Coffea spp.) and dicotyledons (Theobroma cacao L. and Musa spp.); species which are used as an alternative to medicine due to their chemical properties and active components, such as steroids, phenolic compounds, flavonoids and lactones5–7. Studies have shown that the leaf extracts of some species are toxic for the human consumption because of the combination of their chemical compounds8–11.
Artemia salina is a species of shrimp belonging to the Crustaceae family. Ranging from 1 to 7 mm in size, these shrimps have a cosmopolitan distribution and live in saltwater at a temperature of 6 to 35°C12. Its biology was studied as a preliminary test for ecotoxicological investigations associated with low cost and easy handling, in addition to its potential use as a practical and sustainable method for the identification of the pharmacological potential of synthetic and natural compounds and to measure their toxicity in animals13–15. The determination of plant toxicity against Artemia salina involves only one parameter: life or death, and the absence of toxicity is an indicator that the plant can be tolerated by biological systems16. Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate the toxicity of the hydro-alcoholic extract of fruit leaves from the Peruvian Amazon in Artemia salina.
The eggs (20 days old) of Artemia salina were donated by the Department of Animal Physiology of Universidad Nacional de Trujillo, washed with filtered seawater and dried in dehydrated environment and then transported (with oxygen supply). One gram of eggs was used (equivalent to 700-800 eggs), left to hatch in 5 liters of filtered sea water under fluorescent artificial light (110 watts) at a temperature of 25°C for 24 h. The eggs were fed on commercial yeast extract and kept in a glass incubation chamber with abundant oxygenation to allow them to hatch and continue their biological cycle for approximately seven days. Stage III larvae (seven days old) were used as toxicity markers due to their high sensitivity and 10 larvae were used to test each concentration (10, 100 and 1000 μg / ml).
A total of 500 grams of plant samples from each species (Cocos nucifera, Mauritia flexuosa, Theobroma cacao L., Coffea sp, and Musa sp) were collected by researchers (AI and AS) in the district of Cacatachi, San Martín at 295 m above sea level and 12 km to the north of Tarapoto (6°29'40" south latitude and 76°27'57" west longitude). The specimens were transferred in vacuum bags that were labeled with their respective scientific names at a temperature of 37°C to the Herbarium Truxillense of Universidad Nacional de Trujillo for their identification and given a registration code.
Leaves were washed with distilled water, disinfected with 96% ethanol and fragmented to an approximate size of 3mm. Extraction of the hydro-alcoholic extract was carried out by maceration with 300 g of leaves and 500 mL of 96% ethanol over 15 days, with agitation carried out using a vertical rotavapor (Scilogex RE-100), run at 70rpm for 10 minutes every four hours (between 7am and 10pm) and a dry extract dissolved in 96% ethanol was obtained.
Phytochemical analysis of the leaf samples was carried out to identify their active principles according to the protocol described by Miranda et al.17. Briefly, each sample was subjected to solvents of increasing polarity, in order to obtain secondary metabolites according to their solubility, using reagents and dyes to determine the presence or absence of active components such as terpenes, flavonoids, reducing sugars, among others. The assays used to determine the presence of each type of secondary metabolite are listed in Table 1. To each test tube, 1ml of pure extract was added and reagents for each assay were added that identify secondary metabolites through color change. The results of the color change were judged by eye according to the method described by Miranda and Cuellar17 and classified as light, moderate or strong.
Assay | Metabolites | Mauritia flexuosa | Cocos nucífera | Theobroma cacao L. | Coffea sp | Musa sp |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Lieberman-Bouchard | Steroids and Triterpenes | (++) | (++) | (++) | (+) | (++) |
Ferric chloride | Phenolic compunds | (+++) | (+) | (+) | (+) | (++) |
Shinoda | Flavonoids | (+++) | (+) | - | (+) | (+++) |
Baljet | Lactones | (+) | (+) | - | - | (++) |
Dragendorff | Alkaloids | - | - | - | (+) | - |
Mayer | Alkaloids | - | - | - | (+) | - |
Fehling | Reducing sugars | (++) | (++) | (++) | (+) | (++) |
Gelatine | Tannins | (++) | (++) | - | (+) | - |
Concentrations (using filtered seawater) of 10, 100 and 1000 µg/ml were than prepared according to the protocol described by Seremet et al. 201818: 5μg of extract was diluted in 5ml of filtered seawater, equivalent to 10μg/ml, 50μg of extract was diluted in 5ml of filtered seawater, equivalent to 100μg/ml, and 500μg of extract was diluted in 5ml of filtered seawater, equivalent to 1000μg/ml. The larvae were added to a test tube containing 10ml of filtered seawater and 0.5ml of the hydroalcoholic extract. A total of 10 larvae were used for each plant species and concentration and each test was performed in triplicate. A control group of 10 larvae in 10ml of filtered seawater without extract was used. The tests were performed in the biological chemistry laboratory of the Universidad Nacional de Trujillo and larvae were observed for 24 hours before the number of live larvae were counted using a stereoscope. The lethal concentration (CL50) for Artemia salina samples was used to classify toxicity as follows: ˃ 1000 µg/ml (non-toxic), 500 ˂ CL50 ≤ 1000 (low toxicity), 100 ˂ CL50 ≤ 500 (moderate toxicity), CL50 ˂ 100 (high toxicity)19.
The toxicity percentage was calculated as follows:
Where TNA = Total number of Artemia and AA = Number of alive Artemia19.
The statistical analysis was carried out using SPSS version 23, applying the student's t-test to calculate toxicity at different concentrations, with p<0.05 considered as statistically significant.
Generally, permits are required from the Environmental Ministry to perform experiments in which animals are involved. However, a permit to investigate Artemia salina was not considered necessary because it does not appear on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) red list and therefore it’s investigation does not represent a danger to the environment or to human beings. All efforts were made to ameliorate any suffering to the animals following the protocol described by the Ecuadorian code of practice for the care and use of animals for scientific purposes of the Ministry of Environment of Ecuador.
Qualitative presence of phenolic compounds can be observed in the hydro-alcoholic extract, such as flavonoids, steroids, triterpenes, reducing sugars, lactones and tannins (Table 1)20.
In Figure 1, it can be observed that there is high toxicity (10 µg/ml), moderate (100 µg/ml) and low (1000 µg/ml) in Mauritia flexuosa and Musa sp; however, only low toxicity (1000 µg/ml) is evidenced in Cocos nucífera, Coffea sp. and Theobroma cacao L (see Underlying data)21.
The results obtained with Artemia salina indicate that both Mauritia flexuosa and Musa sp in the concentrations 10, 100 and 1000 µg/ml have low, moderate and high toxicity, respectively. However, in Cocos nucífera, Coffea sp and Theobroma cacao L., only low toxicity is observed at a concentration of 1000 µg/ml, indicating that toxicity was directly proportional to the concentration of the extract used; therefore, the highest toxicity could be related to the high content of phenolic compounds and flavonoids, among other components, in accordance with previous studies22–26. Samples with values of LD50 higher than 1,000 μg/ml were considered non-toxic, in accordance with Leite et al. 200927, and values of LD50 below 1,000 μg/ml were considered to be toxic according to previous studies28–30. The characteristic phytochemical composition of each plant can change due to various factors such as room temperature, soil, pH and origin. These environmental conditions may influence the synthesis31,32 and expression of the phytochemical components in the plant, changing their toxicity.
Health treatments with medicinal plants are cheap and accessible to the population; however, their indiscriminate use is a risk due to the toxicity of some compounds within the plant. For this reason, it may be useful to study plant extracts with the aim of demonstrating the therapeutic or toxic action of their active components, using Artemia salina as an evaluation method. In this context, the toxicity of hydroalcoholic extracts of fruit leaves from the Peruvian Amazon was evaluated. It can be concluded that the obtained results are in accordance with other studies that examined different extracts as reported by Simões and De Almeida33, indicating that if a sample is non-toxic to Artemia salina, then its effects will also be similar to humans.
Figshare: Toxicity percentage at different concentrations of hydro-alcoholic extract. https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.7996598.v221
This project contains the following underlying data:
Figshare: Photos for the phytochemical analysis of the fruit leaves. https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.8194580.v220
This project contains the following underlying data:
- Cocos nucífera.tif (photographs of the results of the phytochemical analysis for Cocos nucífera)
- Coffea Sp.tif (photograph of the results of the phytochemical analysis for Coffea Sp)
- Mauritia flexuosa.tif (photograph of the results of the phytochemical analysis for Mauritia flexuosa)
- Musa Sp.tif (photograph of the results of the phytochemical analysis for Musa Sp)
- Theobroma cacao L.tif (photograph of the results of the phytochemical analysis for Theobroma cacao L)
Data are available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC-BY 4.0).
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Competing Interests: No competing interests were disclosed.
Reviewer Expertise: Toxicological and pharmacological pre-clinical evaluation of natural and synthetic compounds
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