Toxicity of plant extracts containing pyrrolizidine alkaloids using alternative invertebrate models

Oana Seremet, Octavian Olaru, Claudia Gutu, George Nitulescu, Mihaela Ilie, Simona Negres, Cristina Zbarcea, Carmen Purdel, Demetrios Spandidos, Aristides Tsatsakis, Michael Coleman, Denisa Margina

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Pyrrolizidine alkaloids (PAs) are a widespread class of hepatotoxic heterocyclic organic compounds found in approximately 3% of world flora. Some PAs have been shown to have genotoxic and carcinogenic effects. The present study focuses on the toxicity effects of four dry extracts obtained from medicinal plants (Senecio vernalis, Symphytum officinale, Petasites hybridus and Tussilago farfara), on two aquatic organisms, Artemia salina and Daphnia magna, and the correlation with their PAs content. A new GC‑MS method, using a retention time (TR)‑5MS type capillary column was developed. PAs Kovats retention indices, for this type of column were computed for the first time. The lethal dose 50% (LC50) values for the two invertebrate models were correlated (Pearson 's coefficient, >0.9) and the toxicity was PA concentration-dependent, for three of the four extracts. All tested extracts were found to be toxic in both aquatic organism models. The results can be used to develop a GC‑MS validated method for the assay of PAs in medicinal plants with a further potential application in the risk assessment study of PAs toxicity in humans.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)7757-7763
JournalMolecular Medicine Reports
Volume17
Issue number6
Early online date27 Mar 2018
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jun 2018

Bibliographical note

© Seremet et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of Creative Commons Attribution License. Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

The authors acknowledge the financial support offered by
UEFISCDI (Romania ‑ grant no. 8BM/2016) and NRF (South
Africa), through the Romania ‑ South Africa Joint Collaboration.

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