2015, Vol. 3, Issue 2, Part B

author(s)
I.J. Udo, G.A. Akpan, N.J. Ekong

abstract
The study was conducted to investigate the effects that 24 h treatments with extracts from 5 medicinal plants may have in Allium cepa root tips after 12 h recovery in distilled water, Allium cepa root tips were immersed in alcoholic at the concentrations of 0, 25, 50, 75 and 100 mg/ml, respectively, of the following plants: Gnetum africanum, Welw., Lasianthera africana P. Beauv, Ocimum gratissimum Linn., Telfairia occidentalis Hook F. and Vernonia amygdalina Del., used in herbal medicine. Results obtained show that the various concentrations of the extracts had toxic effects on the cells, which caused general significant reduction (p<0.05) in the mitotic index when compared with the control. Other effects were the accumulation of prophase and telophase stages. This may be due to lack of spindle fibres formation that would have introduced the cells to another stage, due to the interaction of the tested extracts. The use of the leafy extracts of these plants should be with caution.