Assessment of Cytotoxicity Induced by Heavy Metal Arsenic Trioxide and Azo-Dye Metanil Yellow in <i>Allium cepa</i> Assay and Aqueous Plant Extracts Mediated Amelioration

Abstract

Allium cepa (2n=16) assay is used to determine cytotoxicity of environmental pollutants like heavy metal arsenic (in the form of arsenic trioxide concentration used: 0.010, 0.050, 0.075 and 0.100 mg L 1 for 24 h duration) and azo-dye metanil yellow (concentration used: 100, 150, 200 and 400 mg L 1 for 24 h duration) with an objective to understand the toxic effects of the test materials on cells and chromosomes of a plant-based system. Assessment of cytotoxicity reveals that arsenic trioxide can induce chromosomal breakages, affects spindle organization and causes cellular metabolic defects; whereas, metanil yellow predominantly affects cellular metabolism. Cytological disturbances are mostly dose-dependent, and arsenic trioxide depicts pronounced effectivity in inducing mitotic aberrations in root tip cells of A. cepa than metanil yellow (in relation to employed doses). Furthermore, aqueous plant extracts (used due to its operational simplicity and cost-effectivity) of the leaf (Coriandrum sativum L., Ocimum tenuiflorum L., and Pteris vittata L.) and seed (Nigella sativa L.) samples are used to ascertain their amelioration potentiality against the environmental toxicants. The ameliorative study (decrement in their observed values) involves attributes like mitotic index, total abnormal dividing cell frequency and frequency of giant and anucleate cells in resting stages. Results suggest that all the employed extracts are ameliorative, and can be explored further for their role in bioremediation.

Multi-protective role of Echinacea purpurea L. water extract in Allium cepa L. against mercury(II) chloride

“…The A. cepa test correlates well with other test systems as well as being an inexpensive, easy, and fast test to identify mutagens (Leme and Marin-Morales 2009 ). The A. cepa test has been successfully used by researchers to determine the genotoxic effects of heavy metals (Seth et al 2008 ; Yıldız et al 2009 ; Barbosa et al 2010 ; Gupta et al 2018 ) and the protective effects of plant extract against heavy metal-induced genotoxicity (Glińska et al 2007 ; Basu et al 2019 ; Macar et al 2020 ; Kalefetoğlu Macar et al 2021 ).…”

Evaluation of Cytotoxicity Induced by the Anti-Cancerous Drugs Doxorubicin and Erlotinib in <i>Allium cepa</i> Assay for Eco-Safety Monitoring

“…Allium cepa (2n=16) bioassay (root tip mitotic cells) is used to ascertain chromosome damages and disturbances in the mitotic cycle (Leme and Marin-Morales 2009) exposed to environmental pollutants (Basu et al 2019) including anti-cancerous drugs (Mercykutty and Stephen 1980, Lutterbeck et al 2015, Fernández-Casañas and Chan 2018 due to its simplicity, cost-effectivity and efficiency (Barberio et al 2011, Verma andSrivastava 2018). Results of the Allium test corroborate with the data obtained in the mammalian test system (El-Shahaby et al 2003, Teixeira et al 2003.…”

Worldwide Research Trends on Microalgae and Recent Work in Cytologia

“…Spermatophyta is prominent in Cytologia, as the subject of 70 to 83% of the papers in the last two years. The subject species are very diverse, and include more detailed studies of well-known model plants such as Arabidopsis thaliana (Hayashi et al 2018b, Shibuta and Matsunaga 2019, Shimahara et al 2019, Toyoda and Matsunaga 2019 and onion, Allium cepa (Barbhuiya et al 2018, Verma and Srivastava 2018, Basu et al 2019, Roy and Roy 2019, Tütüncü et al 2019. Species with regional characteristics have also been reported, as pointed out in a Cytologia Focus two years ago (Kawano 2018).…”