Toxicity of Fusarium solani Strains on Brine Shrimp (Artemia salina)

Discovery of anticancer drugs that must kill or disable tumor cells in the presence of normal cells without undue toxicity is an extraordinary challenge. Cytotoxicity of plant or fungal materials is considered as the presence of antitumor compounds. Brine shrimp lethality for larvae (nauplii) is used as prescreening test for the antitumor compounds. In this study, culture filtrates of eight strains of Fusarium solani isolated from seeds of various crops were tested for the toxic effect on brine shrimp. Five of the strains (TS, S-29, B-17, C-10, W-5) showed highest toxic effect and three of the strains (SR, T-9, L-25) showed low toxic activity on brine shrimp. Toxic activity reduced when culture filtrates were diluted. However, F. solani strains TS, B-17, SR, T-9 and L-25 caused more than 30% mortality at 1:10 dilution. Toxic activity was slightly reduced when the filtrates were neutralized with sodium hydroxide indicating possible role of pH of culture filtrate on toxicity. Lyophilized filtrates of these strains showed less activity as compared to un-lyophilized filtrates. n-Hexane soluble fraction was obtained only in three strains which showed mild toxicity whereas chloroform soluble fraction was obtained in negligible quantity and could not further be proceeded. Toxic effect of these strains showed variation from strain to strain. Compounds from F. solani could be exploited for the development of toxic compounds.