Subacute oral toxicity study of ethanolic leaves extracts of Strobilanthes crispus in rats

Objective:To examine the oral toxicity of repeated dosing of Strobilanthes crispus(S.crispus)ethanol leaves extract on the liver and kidney functions in Sprague Dawley rats.Methods:Young female rats aged between 8 and 12 week-old were randomly assigned into four groups with five animals each group(n=5).The first group served as control,while the second,third and fourth groups were orally treated with a single dose daily with 150 mg/kg,300 mg/kg,and600 mg/kg of S.crispus ethanol leaves extract for 14 d consecutively.Cage-side observation was conducted for first 4h after each dosing.The body weight changes,food consumptions and water intake were also recorded.Serum biochemical parameters,i.e.,aspartate aminotransferase,alanine aminotransferase,alkaline phosphatase,creatinine and urea were determined at Day15.All results were expressed as mean±SD and analysed using Dunnett's test.Results:It was obtained that 14-day oral administration of S.crispus ethanol leaves extract did not cause any adverse effects or lethality to the female Sprague Dawley rats,No significant changes in serum biochemical parameters,relative organs weights,body weights,food intake and water consumptions were observed between the treatment groups and control.Conclusions:In conclusion,14-day oral administration of S.crispus ethanol leaves extract was safe to be consumed in female rats without affecting the liver and kidney Functions.

RAPD analysis for genetic diversity of germplasm resources of <i>Strobilanthes</i>

The 18 samples representing 18 populations of Strobilanthes cusia (Nees) O. Ktze in Fujian Province of China were analyzed with RAPD markers. Eleven primers were used, a total of 106 bands were scored and 88 of them were polymorphic. The percentage of polymorphic loci was 77.36%, Nei’s gene diversity was 0.2420, and Shannon’s index was 0.3700. The 18 populations were classified into 2 groups based on the RAPD data by the method of hierarchical cluster analysis. Most of the populations from Fujian were clustered into a group, other populations were clustered into the other group. There was a high level of genetic diversity among the populations, and the genetic differentiation was obvious among the populations from Fujian.

The genus Strobilanthes:phytochemistry and pharmacology

The genus Strobilanthes belonging to the family Acanthaceae,is mainly distributed in Kashmir,Bhutan,Bangladesh and the Khasi mountains of northeast India and southwest of China.The main purpose of this review is to provide the available information on the phytochemistry,pharmacology and the traditional applications aspects of the genus Strobilanthes,and provides trends and perspectives for the further studies on its chemical constituents.The present review collected the literatures published prior to 2022 on the phytochemistry,and pharmacology of the genus Strobilanthes.The available literatures were excerpted from scientific databases,such as Sci-finder,PubMed,Web of Science,Google Scholar,and CNKI,Baidu Scholar,books,and others.The plants from the genus Strobilanthes have been usually used in some traditional herbal prescriptions,and pharmacological researches in vitro and in vivo revealed that the extracts possessed significant anticancer,antioxidant,anti-inflammatory,anti-allergic activities,etc.To date,the majority of articles mainly focused on the research of crude extracts.However,the data in previous literatures indicated the research potential of this genus in phytochemical and pharmacological aspects.In addition,the further in-depth investigations on the safety,efficacy,as well as the specific chemical composition,stereo-chemistry and structure-activity relationships of pure compounds from this genus are essential in the future investigation.