Evaluation of the bioactivities of some Myanmar medicinal plants using brine shrimp (Artemia salina) toxicity test

For a variety of toxic substances, brine shrimp larvae (Artemia salina) are usually used as a simple bioassay method and it is also applied for natural product research. The brine shrimp larvae (nauplii) are obtained by natural hatching method from Artemia cysts. By using the larvae, the results from these experiments lead to the lethal dose, LD50 values of extracts of selected medicinal plants. Activities of a broad range of plant extracts are manifested as toxicity to the brine shrimp. Screening results with six plant extracts are compared with pure caffeine. This method is rapid, reliable, inexpensive and convenient. (author)