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Evaluation of genotoxic and cytotoxic effects of hydroalcoholic extract of Euphorbia tirucalli (Euphorbiaceae) in cell cultures of human leukocytes

2016; Brazilian Academy of Sciences; Volume: 88; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1590/0001-3765201520140076

1678-2690

Michel Mansur Machado, Luís Flávio Souza de Oliveira, Luísa Zuravski, Raul Oliveira de Souza, Paula Fischer, Jonathaline Apollo Duarte, Manoelly Oliveira Rocha, Camila Martins Güez, Aline Augusti Boligon, Margareth Linde Athayde,

Environmental Toxicology and Ecotoxicology

ABSTRACT Euphorbia tirucalli (L.), commonly known as aveloz, has been indiscriminately used in popular medicine to treat various illnesses. However, some components can have devastating consequences. Injury to a cell's genetic material can cause mutations, cancer, and cell death. Our main goal in this work was to evaluate the genotoxic and cytotoxic effects of E. tirucalli extract on human leukocytes. For this purpose, we performed a phytochemical analysis to evaluate the plant's components. In the second step, we treated cultured human leukocytes with different concentrations of the dry extract of the plant and then evaluated the oxidative and genotoxic profiles of these leukocytes. We found that at 1% and 10% concentrations, the aveloz extract acted as a genotoxic agent that could damage DNA and increase oxidative damage. We conclude that despite its popular use, aveloz can act as a genotoxic agent, especially when it contains phorbol ester. Aveloz's indiscriminate use might actually promote tumors and therefore carry a considerable genetic risk for its users.