Abstract

The study was conducted to investigate the effects that plant extracts from 5 medicinal plants may have on mitosis in Allium cepa. Root of A. cepa were immersed in alcoholic extracts at the concentrations of 0, 25, 50, 75 and 100 mg/mL, respectively for each of the following plants: Gnetum africanum Welw., Lasianther aafricana P. Beauv, Ocimum gratissimum Linn., Telfairia occidentalis Hook F. and Vernonia amygdalina Del. Leafy vegetable which are commonly used in herbal medicine. Results obtained show that the various concentrations of the extracts from test plants had toxic effects on the cells, which caused significant reduction (p<0.05) in the mitotic index when compared with the control. Other effects were prophase inhibition, the delay of mitosis and nuclear lesion. The cytotoxic effect makes a case for a precaution in the use of the leafy extracts in herbal medicine practice.

Keywords:

Alcohol, Allium cepa, cytotoxic effect, mitosis,

References

Competing interests

The authors have no competing interests.

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The authors have no competing interests.