Tests for cytotoxicity
Since it is important to assess the toxicity as well as the activity
of compounds present in traditional remedies, the substances
isolated were investigated for their effect on rat peritoneal leu-
kocyte viability using the MTT assay [10] and on the integrity of
the cell walls of the leukocytes by measuring lactate dehydro-
genase (LDH) released [2].
The MTT test was carried out as previously described [8]. The ex-
periment was done in triplicate and Triton-X and melittin were
used as positive controls.
The test for LDH release also used rat peritoneal PMNs and fol-
lowed an established method [2].