Evaluating Developmental Toxicity of Solvent Fractions Obtained from Pulicaria glutinosa on Zebrafish Embryo and their Antimicrobial Potential

Journal Article

2014

Pulicaria genus belongs to the family Compositae. Some species of this genus
have been used in traditional Arab medicine as antispasmodic agent. In this study the
Pulicaria glutinosa, which is a wild growing shrub in Saudi Arabia have been explored
for developmental toxicity using zebrafish embryos. The fractionated crude extract showed
diverse biological activity as methanol fraction exhibited highest antioxidant activity
(IC50 12.2±0.27%) followed by chloroform fraction (18.1±0.36%), while hexane fraction
did not show any antioxidant activity. Treating zebrafish (Danio rerio) embryos with
fractionated extracts of Pulicaria glutinosa revealed that hexane fraction induced severe
neurotoxicity in growing zebrafish embryos even at very low concentrations (5μg/ml),
while methanol fraction which had highest antioxidant activity did not produce any
teratogenic profile even at 100μg/ml. This is the first report to evaluate the fresh leaves of
Pulicaria glutinosa for antimicrobial, antioxidant activity and developmental toxicity
in zebrafish embryos