Abstract:

Plants have always been a vital source of medicine since the dawn of time for man. The pharmacological evaluation of substances from plants is an established method for the identification of lead compounds which can leads to the development of novel and safe medicinal agents. Based on literature the Fabaceae or Leguminosae plant family has medicinal properties which have been proved safe for usage on humans. Species such as Cassia fistula, Saraca asoca, Cassia auriculata and Cassia tora have laxative, treating gynecologic disorders, anti-dysentery and treating skin disease respectively are from the Caesalpinioideae; a sub-family of the Fabaceae or Leguminosae plant family. Most of these botanicals contain heterogenous products in them. These products are bioactive in nature i.e. they are secondary metabolites which aids in the protection and survivability of the plant. These secondary metabolites are compounds such as alkaloids, terpenoids, steroids and polyketides etc. To extract these bioactive compounds from the plant, polar, semi-polar and non-polar solvents are used sequentially for extraction. To help identify if a plant has bioactive properties special bioassays are used which are an inexpensive to carry out on the botanicals. Bioassays offer a special advantage in the standardization and quality control of heterogeneous botanicals products. One such bioassay is the brine shrimp lethality test (BST) a general bioassay. The brine shrimp lethality test (BST) is used to predict the presence, in the plant extracts, cytotoxic activity. This bioassay uses the micro-organisms Artemia salina which is placed in different concentration levels of the plant extracts. The percentage death tells how toxic the plant extract is. The BST is especially sugessted as an inexpensive, simple and rapid means of standardization of bioactivity in heterogeneous botanical products.

Keywords: Artemia salina, brine shrimp lethality test, secondary metabolites, cytotoxic activity, medicinal plants, heterogeneous botanical.

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