Abstract
Urena lobata (L.) has diverse biological activities. A recent study suggests that its leaf extract exerts acute toxicity on three different phases of Zebra fish, where the authors calculated the median lethal concentration (LC50) value ranges between 2,548 and 8,748 g/L. This study aims to re-check its toxic effects on a new eukaryotic test model named the Allium sativum toxicity test model. For this, the ethanolic leaf extract of Urena lobata (ELEUL) was tested at 2, 4, 8, 16, and 32 mg/mL on the cloves of A. sativum at 24, 48, and 72 h exposure times (ET) using copper sulphate (CuSO4) as a reference standard. Manual observation of root number and length profiles was considered in this study. The results suggest that ELEUL significantly (p< 0.05) and concentration-dependently reduced the number and length of roots of the test system in comparison to the control group. However, the ELEUL exerted more toxic effects at 72 h ET on the test system, and it showed an adaptive capacity at 48 h inspect of 24 h ET. The LC50 value was obtained between 4 and 8 mg/mL. Taken together, the ELEUL exerted toxic effects on the root meristems of A. sativum cloves, and this new model was sensitive like other popularly used toxicogenetic biomonitoring systems, like the A. cepa test model. Therefore, A. sativum might be another hopeful plant-based toxicogenetic test model.