Testing biological actions of medicinal plants from northern Vietnam on zebrafish embryos and larvae: Developmental, behavioral, and putative therapeutical effects.

Evaluating the risks and benefits of using traditional medicinal plants is of utmost importance for a huge fraction of the human population, in particular in Northern Vietnam. Zebrafish are increasingly used as a simple vertebrate model for testing toxic and physiological effects of compounds, especially on development. Here, we tested 12 ethanolic extracts from popular medicinal plants collected in northern Vietnam for their effects on zebrafish survival and development during the first 4 days after fertilization. We characterized more in detail their effects on epiboly, hatching, growth, necrosis, body curvature, angiogenesis, skeletal development and mostly increased movement behavior. Finally, we confirm the effect on epiboly caused by the Mahonia bealei extract by staining the actin filaments and performing whole genome gene expression analysis. Further, we show that this extract also inhibits cell migration of mouse embryo fibroblasts. Finally, we analyzed the chemical composition of the Mahonia bealei extract and test the effects of its major components. In conclusion, we show that traditional medicinal plant extracts are able to affect zebrafish early life stage development to various degrees. In addition, we show that an extract causing delay in epiboly also inhibits mammalian cell migration, suggesting that this effect may serve as a preliminary test for identifying extracts that inhibit cancer metastasis.

Medicinal Plants in Phyllanthoideae (Euphorbiaceae) in Vietnam

Phyllanthoideae is a primitive subfamily of Euphorbiaceae in Vietnam. This subfamily consists of 9 sorts, 17 genera and 192 species. Among which 46 species (23,96%) of the total 192 species used medicinally, most of which are in the Phyllanthus (10 species), Glochidion (9 species), Antidesma (7 species)...Among these, 60.87% are trees, the rest are shrubs and herbs, but no lianas. The most parts for treatment are leaves, and then the roots, the barks, the fruits and the whole trees.