ISSN (Online) : 2277-4572
Author(s): Priyankar Dey, Somit Dutta, Tapas Kumar Chaudhuri*
D. alata is a staple food in many regions of the world and also extensively consumed in the North-Eastern Region of India. Medicinal properties of the tubers of D. alata are well established, but this is the first time that the possible toxicological evaluation of the areal tubers has been done. Hydro-methanolic extract of the areal tubers were prepared and used for all the experiments. EMSA was estimated at 562 nm against quercetin as standard. The haemolytic activity was assayed at 540 nm against Triton-X as the standard. The cytotoxic effect of D. alata was studied on murine splenocytes, thymocytes, hepatocytes and peritoneal macrophage by MTT cytotoxic test. All the results were statistically analysed. The half maximal haemolytic concentration for D. alata and triton-X were 1312.94 ± 180.15µg/ml and 189.24 ± 1.54 µg/ml, respectively. The half maximal inhibitory concentration of the D. alata was 216.79 ± 8.73 µg/ml for EMSA and 2905.66 ± 538.34 µg/ml, 3997.91 ± 1873.94 µg/ml, 5201.23 ± 226.38 µg/ml and 4284.62 ± 1256.16 µg/ml, respectively, for MTT assay. The results suggest the presence of potent EMSA and negligible cytotoxic and haemolytic activity of D. alata.
