Abstract
The present study was carried out to evaluate the larvicidal activity and cytotoxicity of Aspergillus sydowi extract. The LC50 calculated of methanol crude extract and fraction 6 was 250.86 +/- 4.15 and 56.61 +/- 0.89 mu g/ml for Aedes caspius and 271.02 +/- 7.01 and 103.74 +/- 0.99 for Culex pipina respectively after 24 hours of exposure. Larvae of Ae. caspius treated with fraction 6 of A. sydowi methanol extract underwent a lethal disruption of the peritrophic membrane and an extensive cellular microvillar disruption. Expression of Bcl-2 representative of antiapoptotic protein was greatly reduced in control when compared to treated group conversely; Bax the pro-apoptotic protein was higher in treated group.
The cytotoxicity of fraction 6 and 7 showed 80.25% and 86.3 % survival at the highest concentration (37 mu g/ml) tested against Hepg2. On the other hand, Jurkat cells lines showed higher sensitivity to the fraction tested. Fraction 6 showed 45.17% survival where as fraction 7 showed 86.34 % survival at the highest concentration tested. The HPLC chromatogram revealed that fraction 6 obtained is not pure and requires further purification and characterization to examine larvicidal and cytotoxic effect.