Abstract

Aliyu, M. A, Abdullahi, A. A. and Ugya A.Y.*

ABSTRACT

The study was aimed at searching for alternative sources of affordable food from the selected Poaceae species. This involved ten Poaceae species which were identified, percolated (whole plant) with methanol, filtered and evaporated to dryness in Rotary Evaporator (Yamamoto, Tokyo, Japan) at 400C. Cytotoxicity of the Poaceae species were determined using brine shrimp (Artemia salina) bioassay; the results: Urelytrum muricatum (566.607?g/ml), Eleusine indica (550.021?g/ml), Pennisetum purporeum (546.842?g/ml), Panicum maximum (542.620?g/ml), Andropogon gayanus (536.97?g/ml), Imperata cylindrica (527.257?g/ml), Cynodon dactylon (512.781?g/ml), Leersia hexandra (512.781?g/ml), Dactyloctenium aegyptium (507.272?g/ml), and Eragrostis cilliaris (507.272?g/ml). According to Clarkson’s criterion for the toxicity assessment of plant extracts, this result revealed that the Poaceae species are low toxic. Since all the Poaceae species exhibited low toxicity, it can be concluded that the grasses can serve as alternative safe and affordable food and drug sources. Confirmation of the Brine shrimp lethality bioassay results with Acute Oral Toxicity Assay using laboratory animals are recommended.