Potato disc bioassay and cytotoxic effect of Leptadenia pyrotechnica: comparative study of diverse extracts

Comparative acute toxicity studies of the latex and sequential extracts of Leptadenia pyrotechnica (Forsk.) Decne (Asclepiadaceae) were recorded using brine shrimp. The higher toxicities were exhibited in latex; methanol, methanol/dichloromethane (1:1), defatted methanol/dichloromethane (1:1), defatted methanol and dichloromethane extracts. The other extracts; aqueous, alkaloids, ethyl acetate and n-butanol exhibited less toxicities compared with the other extracts. The estimated LC50 and its 95% confidence limits for these extracts expressed in ppm were: methanol, latex 18.84 (11.22-31.61), methanol/dichloromethane 19.95 (7.76-53.70), defatted methanol/dichloromethane 21.38 (7.24-63.10), defatted methanol 28.19 (16.27-48.81) and dichloromethane 30.90 (11.75-79.43). The anti-tumor activities; potato disc assays of methanol, ethyl acetate and alkaloids extracts showed good activities as anti-tumor agent which represented-49.30,-43.20 an -33.60%, respectively. While latex and aqueous extract represented-30.80 and-28.17%, respectively.