How To Elicit The Genotoxic Effect Of Aqueous Extract Of Ecballium elaterium Using Micronucleus Assay And DNA Single Strand Break Techniques

摘要

Medicinal green plants are generally containing mutagenic and carcinogenic substances, but there is little information about the biological activities of herbal medicine.[1] Ecballium elaterium (L.) (''squirting cucumber'' or ''donkey's green'') is a perennial plant from the family Cucurbitaceae, a mediterranean medicinal plant that has been investigated for its several pharmacological properties.[2,3,4,5,6,7] Dioscorides applied it to the medicine of which we are treating. [8, 9] Herbal medicine recommends it for the treatment of chronic sinusitis or rhinosinusitis [7, 10,11,12] It is also recommended for liver cirrhosis as well as other conditions thought to be inflammatory in nature including rheumatism and infections [13] Ecballium elaterium roots were used as analgesic and in treatment of hemorrhoids; fruits in sinusitis, jaundice, nocturia, lumbago and otalgia [7, 11, 14, 15] The Review A recent study conducted was designed to investigate the anti-inflammatory effect of aqueous extract of Ecballium elaterium, which is topically applied for treatment of rhinosinusitis as a traditional folk medicine in Turkey. Therapeutic potential of E. elaterium as an anti-inflammatory agent was examined by measurement of nitric oxide metabolites in a rabbit model of rhinosinusitis. The results showed that both activity of nitric oxide synthase enzyme and concentration of nitric oxide metabolites were significantly reduced by topical administration of E. elaterium extract in therapy group as compared to the control. Thus, the data suggest E. elaterium extract may have the potential to be used as anti-inflammation agent, and can be used in the treatment of rhinosinusitis diseases.[12]A study has been made taking a series of 13 patients who were exposed to the juice of Ecballium elaterium in its natural form. In 3 patients, exposure was intranasal for the treatment of sinusitis or liver cirrhosis. In 3 other cases, children ingested the fruit unwittingly. In 6 patients, exposure was ocular and, in one, dermal. Within minutes of exposure, the patients exhibited irritation of mucous membranes at various degrees of severity manifested as edema of pharynx, dyspnea, drooling, dysphagia, vomiting, conjunctivitis, corneal edema, and erosion, depending on the route of the exposure. Recovery began within several to 24 hours after administration of oxygen, steroids, antihistamines, and beta-2-agonists. Ocular exposures responded to topical steroid and antibiotic eyedrops within few days. The toddler with the dermal exposure remained asymptomatic. The conclusion of this study was that exposure to the juice of Ecbalium elaterium, mainly in its undiluted form, may cause irritation of mucous membranes, supposedly of inflammatory nature. Patients exposed orally or intranasally should be closely followed for upper airway obstruction. Patients exposed occularly should have their eyes promptly irrigated to prevent corneal and conjunctival injury [16] Another study [17] tested the in vitro pollen germination on Ecballium elaterium (L.) A. Rich. (Cucurbitaceae) and other 6 different plant species in basic medium. Sucrose (10%) and boric acid (0.01%) was used as germination medium and germination occurred in Petri dishes. The percentage of in vitro germination of pollen tubes among the species was found to be quite different. Percentage of germination for Ecballium elaterium was 5%. Ecballium elaterium fruit juice initial characterization using SDS-PAGE indicated the presence of 20 proteins with molecular weights ranging from 13 to 103 KDa. Heat treatment of the juice led to the loss of 3 proteins and appearance of another. Moreover, 3 proteins stained positively with periodic Schiff stain (PAS) for carbohydrate detection. In male Sprague Dawley albino rats, the LD50 was estimated to be 2.5 mg/kg body weight, when injected intravenously. The crude juice resulted in agglutination of red blood cells from various species. This effect was species-specific, with ra