Testing biological actions of medicinal plants from northern Vietnam on zebrafish embryos and larvae: Developmental, behavioral, and putative therapeutical effects.

Evaluating the risks and benefits of using traditional medicinal plants is of utmost importance for a huge fraction of the human population, in particular in Northern Vietnam. Zebrafish are increasingly used as a simple vertebrate model for testing toxic and physiological effects of compounds, especially on development. Here, we tested 12 ethanolic extracts from popular medicinal plants collected in northern Vietnam for their effects on zebrafish survival and development during the first 4 days after fertilization.

Toxicity and Anti-Proliferative Properties of Ethanol Extract on Cervical Cancer HeLa Cells and Zebrafish Embryos.

In this study, we showed that crude extract of (AI-EtE) expressed its toxicity to HeLa cells with an IC50 dose of 38.8 µg/mL and to zebrafish embryos with malformations, lethality and hatching inhibition at 72-hpf at doses higher than 75 µg/mL. More interestingly, flow cytometry revealed that AI-EtE significantly promoted the number of cells entering apoptotic.