Aloe vera L. is a valuable medicinal plant and is currently used in pharmaceutical, cosmetic, and food industries worldwide. In the present study, the effect of various concentrations of Aloe vera leaf gel extracts was investigated on mitotic and phase indexes of Allium cepa L. root tip cells for 24 and 48 h durations. | A. İ. İLBAŞ, U. GÖNEN, S. YILMAZ, M. Y. DADANDI Research Article Turk J Bot 36 (2012): 263-268 © TÜBİTAK doi: Cytotoxicity of Aloe vera gel extracts on Allium cepa root tip cells 1 2 3, 4 Ali İrfan İLBAŞ , Umut GÖNEN , Semih YILMAZ *, Mehmet Yaşar DADANDI 1 Department of Field Crops, Seyrani Agricultural Faculty, Erciyes University, Kayseri-TURKEY 2 Graduate School of Natural and Applied Sciences, Erciyes University, Kayseri- TURKEY 3 Department of Agricultural Biotechnology, Seyrani Agricultural Faculty, Erciyes University, Kayseri- TURKEY 4 Department of Biology, Faculty of Sciences, Erciyes University, Kayseri- TURKEY Received: Accepted: Abstract: Aloe vera L. is a valuable medicinal plant and is currently used in pharmaceutical, cosmetic, and food industries worldwide. In the present study, the effect of various concentrations of Aloe vera leaf gel extracts was investigated on mitotic and phase indexes of Allium cepa L. root tip cells for 24 and 48 h durations. The EC50 value of gel extracts was found to be 20% and was used to determine the experimental concentrations. The results indicated that the mitotic index and root growth rate of A. cepa were considerably decreased in comparison to the control. We found that the cytotoxic effect of A. vera gel extracts depends on the concentration rather than the exposure time. Even the low doses caused a considerable decrease in root growth rate. The lowest mitotic index value was found to be at 40% gel extract treatment for 48 h duration. Average prophase index during 24 and 48 h applications was found to be and , respectively. We conclude that A. vera gel extracts have a cytotoxic effect on the root tip cells of A. cepa. Key words: Mitotic index, phase index, Allium cepa, Aloe vera, cytotoxicity Aloe vera jel ekstraktlarının Allium cepa kök ucu hücreleri üzerindeki sitotoksik etkisi Özet: Aloe vera L. dünyanın her yerinde ilaç, kozmetik ve gıda
