It has become common practice in many laboratories in Europe to introduce the criterion "moribund" to reduce the suffering in fish acute lethality tests. Fish with severe sublethal symptoms might be declared moribund and are removed from the test as soon as this occurs (premature discontinuation of experiment). Moribund fish affect main study outcomes as the median lethal concentration (LC50) d...

Dichloromethane and/or ethanol extracts of 30 plants used as traditional medicines in Bukoba district, northwestern Tanzania were evaluated for brine shrimp toxicity. Among the 50 extracts tested, 32 extracts (64%) showed very low toxicity with LC50 values above 100 microg/ml. Among these 12 (24%) which had LC50 >500 microg/ml can be categorized as being practically non-toxic. Among the remaini...

Numerous studies have been focused on natural anticarcinogenic agents. Many antioxidants have been identified as anticarcinogens. Antimutagens have also been proposed as cancer chemopreventive agents. The use of natural products as anticancer has a long history that began with traditional medicine. The aim of this study was to evaluate cytotoxicity and antioxidant activity of twenty-three plant...

Hydrodistilled essential oil from Rhododendron anthopogonoides Maxim. (Ericaceae) aerial parts was analysed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). A total of 42 compounds, accounting for 95.48% of the total oil, were identified. The main constituents of the essential oil were benzyl acetone (34.41%), nerolidol (10.19%), 1,4-cineole (8.41%), beta-caryophyllene (5.63%), gamma-elemene (5...

ABSTRACT: Candidiasis is a fungal infection caused by Candida albicans. Allium sativum (garlic) and Curcuma longa (turmeric) have been used as antifungal agents. The main aim of this study was to identify the effectiveness of these natural products towards C. albicans and on their pharmacological and toxicity aspects. Thus, agar disc diffusion method was used to study the antifungal activity of...

Spodoptera exigua (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) is one of the major pests of many crops in Pakistan. Effectiveness of different insecticides was evaluated against field populations of 2 instar larvae of S. exigua under laboratory conditions because in lepidopterous pests resistance is developed in 3 instars. Bioassays were performed through leaf dip method to evaluate the doseand time-mortality resp...

Growth promoters play an important role in the animal agriculture industry as they facilitate to improve productivity mainly through reduction of pathogenic bacterial load in the gut. Ban and restrictions on the usage of Antibiotic Growth Promoters (AGP) due to public health concerns has made it essential to search alternatives from the herbal sources. But at the same time it is tricky to choos...

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES Mosquito control is facing a threat due to the emergence of resistance to synthetic insecticides. Insecticides of botanical origin could serve as potential alternatives in future. Larvicidal efficacies of different parts of mangrove plants belonging to Rhizophoraceae family were tested against the late IV instar larvae of dengue vector, Aedes aegypti. METHODS Different...

The compound crotocaudin extracted from the stem bark of the medicinal plant Croton tiglium Linn. was administered for 24 h or 96 h to the freshwater vector snail Lymnaea (Radix) acuminata Lamarck in order to test its toxicity. L. acuminata is the intermediate host of Fasciola hepatica and Fasciola gigantica which cause immense harm to man and his domestic animals. It was observed that the moll...

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES Mosquitoes transmit serious human health diseases, causing millions of deaths every year. Plants may be sources of alternative mosquito control agents. The present study was carried out to assess the role of larvicidal activities of the crude extracts of four plants viz. Alternanthera sessilis L. (Amaranthaceae), Trema orientalis L. (Cannabaceae), Gardenia carinata Smith...