Rhizome extract of Curcuma longa L. exhibit mitodepressive effect, but no genotoxicity Seema R.1*, Lavania Seshu2 1Department of Education in Science and Mathematics, NCERT- North East Regional Institute of Education (NERIE), Village -Umiam, Shillong - 793103, India 2Department of Botany, University of Lucknow, Lucknow - 226007, India *seeseema2@gmail.com
Online Published on 11 May, 2022. Abstract The genus Curcuma within the family Zingiberaceae has been used as a folk medicine from ancient times, and the species C. longa is one of the most important cultivated species that yields turmeric, and widely used in traditional and modern medicine. Growing concerns raised about the side effects of therapeutic principles have necessitated to ensure safe use even for phytochemicals, and the least being that such chemicals do not pose any genotoxic effect. Since, Allium test model is one of the most efficient bioassay to assess cytotoxic and genotoxic effects of plant extracts, it was therefore planned to evaluate the effect of C. longa rhizome extract on cell division. It is observed that the rhizome extract with curcumin as its main constituent imparts inhibitory effect on root growth mediated through mito-depression, but at the same time there is no genotoxic/chromosome aberration effect, suggesting its safe use. The correlation analysis between the different concentrations of rhizome extract and the mitotic index revealed that there was a high negative correlation of r = -0.971 at 24 hrs and r= -0.950 at 48 hrs of extract treatment. Further, the root length also showed a high negative correlation after 24 hrs (r = -0.986) and 48 hrs (r = -0.964). The result of this study indicates that the mitodepressive effect of C. longa rhizome extract is both time and concentration dependent. Top Keywords Curcuma, Cytotoxic, Genotoxic, Mitodepressive. Top |