Cytotoxic Effects of Terminalia Chebula on Meiotic & Mitotic Chromosomes of Vicia Faba

There is known curative effect related to heart and digestion disorders by the fruits of Terminalia chebula irrespective of rationale dose. Here we showed effect of different concentrations (5, 10, 20, 30, 40, & 50%) of T. chebula extracts on meiotic and mitotic chromosomes of Vicia faba plant for 4 different time periods. Flower bud treatment method and root tip treatment methods were used for meiotic and mitotic analysis, respectively. Mitotic and meiotic chromosome indicated various abnormalities against higher doses. Cytotoxicity was inferred, Mitotic index of treated cells was significantly different (P<0.05) from control. The percent of abnormalities increase with increasing dose (5-50%) and time (4-24 hours). Stickiness was more frequent than other abnormalities. Higher dose was shown more cytotoxic effect; concluding Terminalia chebula extract could be toxic with injudicious dose. INTRODUCTION In the present endeavor an effort is needed to study the cytogenetical effects of medicinal plants. Previous studies have revealed that the abnormalities induced by herbal extracts were more or less same type but their frequency varies from plant to plant. Many plant extracts and their active principles have been described and utilized as therapeutic agents. There is considerable interest in determining the risks that these products may pose to health, because many of these plants contain compounds which are known to cause diseases or even death in animals and humans. Thus, an assessment of their cytotoxic and mutagenic potential is necessary to ensure a relatively safe use of medicinal plants (Surh and Ferguson, 2003). Hence, Terminalia chebula were administered in test plantVicia faba, with a view to access cytotoxic, phytotoxic, clastogenic, teratogenic, turbagenic, properties. Terminalia chebula is a herbaceous plant belongs to the family Combretaceae of order Rosales. It’s common habitat is Southern Asia region. The tree is found in the forests of Northern India, central provinces and Bengal, common in Madras, Mysore and in the Southern parts of the Bombay presidency; it is also found in Burma and Ceylon up to 5,000 ft in the outer Himalayan and up to 6,000 ft in Travancore. The every part of the tree has been used in the preparation of many ayurvedic medicines for household remedy against various human ailments, from antiquity. The fruit Myrobalans are a safe and effective purgative, astringent and alternative. Unripe fruits are more purgative removing bile and phlegm and to adjust bile (Bag et al., 2013) and the ripe are astringent (Lee et al., 2010). Both the fresh and dried fruits of the T. chebula are very popular traditional medicines for the treatment of diabetes. It is also reported to have antioxidant and free radical scavenging activities (Cheng et al., 2003). It also contains astringent principles; tannin (tannic acid) 45 p.c. , and a large amount of gallic acid, chebulinic acid which when heated in water splits up into tannic and gallic acids (Inamdar and Rao, 1962). An assessment of their cytotoxic and mutagenic potential is necessary to ensure a relatively safe use of medicinal plants (Surh and Ferguson, 2003). It is known that plant cytotoxic bioassays have a good correlation with mammalian cell based assays [21-28]; therefore we studied various dose of T chebula, if have any risk of toxicity. Vicia faba L. (2n = 12), of the family Fabaceae, have homozygous genotype because of self pollination (Gulfishan et al., 2010). Thus, Vicia faba based bioassays have established role to study chromosome anomalies due to their large and visible chromosome (Asthana and Kumar, 2014). MATERIAL AND METHODS Collection of samples : The fruits of Terminalia chebula were purchased from local market of Agra, India. The same were cross-identified by their vernacular names and later validated at the Department of Botany, School of Life Sciences, Dr. Bhim Rao Ambedkar University, Agra. Voucher specimens (accession number Bot.0001/2012/0008) were deposited for future reference in the herbarium of same department. Processing of samples: The dried fruits (300 gm) of Terminalia chebula (Family: Combretaceae) were washed thoroughly with tap water. After that, fruits were placed in shade to dry for 10-15 days. All dried material was chopped into small fragments. They were then reduced into a fine powder with a kitchen grinder. The powder could then pass through a sieve of pore size 0.5 mm. The part left in sieve was grinded again and again till we get all material in coarse powder. Preparation of Methanol extraction: Powdered samples (30 gm) were extracted at 65oC with methanol (400 ml) for 72 h (25 cycles) using Soxhlet apparatus to make methanol extract. Finally, the extract was filtered and concentrated in oven at 40oC ± 5oC under atmospheric pressure, to obtain semisolid paste, after drying; they were weighed in order to know the amount of extract of plant sample and percentage yield. The same procedure of extract preparation was repeated with the remaining powder for two times more (Roy et al., 2012). The extract was collected and weighed then diluted with methanol to prepare 5%, 10%, 20%, 30%, 40%, and 50% weight/volume.