BACKGROUND The brine shrimp lethality assay is considered a useful tool for preliminary assessment of toxicity. It has also been suggested for screening pharmacological activities in plant extracts. However, we think that it is necessary to evaluate the suitability of the brine shrimp methods before they are used as a general bio-assay to test natural marine products for pharmacological activit...

Cancer is one of the most distressing, life threatening disease regarding morbidity and mortality worldwide. Many folk medicinal and ornamental plants possess chemotherapeutic and chemo preventive potential. In present study, dichloromethane extract of wood, bark and root and methanol extracts of bark and root of Sanchezia speciosa were prepared. Sanchezia speciosa, an ornamental plant was eval...

Vibrio harveyi is amongst the most important bacterial pathogens in aquaculture. Novel methods to control this pathogen are needed since many strains have acquired resistance to antibiotics. We previously showed that quorum sensing-disrupting furanones are able to protect brine shrimp larvae against vibriosis. However, a major problem of these compounds is that they are toxic toward higher orga...

Effect of food was examined on the budding rate and the developmental gradients of a mutant hydra strain L4. This mutant strain has very high levels of head-inhibition potential gradient along its body axis (Takano & Sugiyama, 1983). It also has a reduced budding capacity when it is cultured using brine shrimp nauplii as food, but its budding capacity is significantly improved when a small amou...

Trypanosomosis is arguably the most important disease of man and his domesticated animals in the tropics. There are few compounds available for its treatment. This has exacerbated the development of drug resistance. There is therefore urgent need to search for newer compounds to treat this important disease. Medicinal plants represent a potential source of the drugs. This paper reports a bioass...

Stationary liquid cultures of Fusarium tricinctum NRRL 3299 (synonym: F. sporotrichioides) produce T-2 toxin, neosolaniol, diacetoxyscirpenol, and HT-2 toxin when cultured on peptone-enriched Czapek Dox medium. At 15 and 27 degrees C, maximum T-2 toxin yield (265 and 50 mug/ml) was found after 10 to 14 and 7 days, respectively. The T-2 toxin in the culture medium was metabolized rapidly at 27 d...

Razorback sucker (Xyrauchen texanus) larvae from adults exposed to selenium at three sites near Grand Junction, Colorado, for 9 months were used in a 30-day waterborne and dietary selenium study. Selenium concentrations in water averaged <1.6 microg/L from 24-Road, 0.9 microg/L from Horsethief, 5.5 microg/L from Adobe Creek, and 10.7 microg/L from the North Pond. Selenium in dietary items avera...

ARTEMIA is commonly known as the brine shrimp. It is a crustacean. It lives high saline waters. It is widely distributed throughout the world; it is the most important live feed organism. ARTEMIA lives in high saline environment where its predators cannot survive. Hence ARTEMIA can be effectively cultured in saline water. Such water bodies are found in solar saltpans, which occur all along Indi...

Context: Plant materials contain glycoproteins (phytolectins) that are toxic in nature may play a key role in the control of various normal and pathological processes in living organisms and have diverse biochemical and diagnostic applications. Objectives: Screening of three lectins SLL-1, SLL-2 and SLL-3 purified from Drumstick (Moringa oleifera Lam.) leaves for their antibacterial activities ...

Sesbania Grandiflora (Family: Leguminosae) is a medicinal plant used as tumor suppressant agent in Ayurveda, a traditional system of medicine practiced in sub-continental India. The aim of the study was to systematically investigate and reveal the cytotoxic potential of sesbania grandiflora bark extract [petroleum ether (BP), Chloroform (BC), Methanol extract (BM) and Aqueous extract (BA)] agai...