Cytotoxic and genotoxic activity of Achillea millefolium aqueous extracts

The yarrow, Achillea millefoilum L. is an important species of Asteraceae family with common utilization in folk medicine of many countries. The aim of this study was to investigate the cytotoxic and genotoxic effects of aqueous extracts from yarrow leaves on Lactuca sativa (lettuce) root tip meristem cells by cytogenetic studies, since studies of this nature do not exist for the yarrow extracts. For this, lettuce seeds were treated for 72 h with different concentrations of yarrow aqueous extracts (5, 10, 20 and 30 mg/mL). The percentage of germination, root development and cellular behavior were analyzed and the results showed that the highest concentration of aqueous extracts reduced the mitotic index (MI), the seed germination and the root development of L. sativa. More yet, the extracts also induced chromosome aberrations (CA) and cellular death in the roots cells of L. sativa indicating precaution in the therapeutic use of A. millefolium and reinforcing the utilization of L. sativa in the screening of cytogenotoxic substances once that this species showed a good sensibility to the extract application.