Zebrafish embryo

Semecarpus anacardium L. and Trigonella foenum-graecum L. has been traditionally used in India. These drugs have a long history of use for the prevention and treatment of diseases. But due to the toxic potential of these drugs there is need to have an easy model which can be used for screening teratogenic potential of such plants. The zebrafish embryo is a promising alternative model in some fields of biomedical research, such as drug screening, safety pharmacology, and developmental toxicity assessment. This study is aimed at evaluating teratogenicity of aqueous extracts of Semecarpus anacardium L. and Trigonella foenum-graecum L. seeds on zebrafish embryos. The concentrations of the aqueous extracts of Semecarpus anacardium L. and Trigonella foenum-graecum L. used were 0.01, 0.02, 0.04 and 0.08%. Zebrafish embryos were exposed from 24-96 hpf to both the aqueous extracts. Malformations assessment was carried out at 96 hpf. They were evaluated for phenotype changes such as head malformation, pericardial edema, yolk sac edema and jaw malformation. There was dose dependent teratogenicity shown by both the extracts on zebrafish embryos. Based on these results, it was concluded that Semecarpus anacardium and Trigonella foenum-graecum seeds extracts may have potential teratogenic effects on fetuses.