Toxicological Screening of some Selected Legumes Seed Extracts

Legumes are excellent sources of protein, carbohydrates, dietary fibre, lipids, vitamins, carotenoids, macronutrients, a variety of micronutrients and phytochemicals. This study ethanolic extracts of seeds of eight legumes namely pea (Pisum sativum), desi and kabuli chickpea (Cicer arietinum L), cowpea (Vigna unguiculata (L) Walp.), mash bean (Phaseolus mungo), mung bean (Vigna radiate L. wilczek), soybean (Glycine max) and lentil (Lens culinaris Medik.) were tested for different biological activities such as insecticidal activity, phytotoxic activity, wormicidal, anthelmintic activity as well as lethality bioassay. Most extracts (desi chickpea, cowpea, mash bean, mung bean, soybean and lentil) showed moderate activity at higher concentration of 1000 µg ml⁻¹ and low or no activity at low doses (100 and 10?g ml⁻¹). In vitro results showed that ethanolic extract of these plants caused appreciable mortality of second stage juveniles of Cephalobus litoralis and Helicotylenchus indicus. Higher concentrations used (2% and 1%) were found more effective and produced significant results as compared to 0.5% of extracts. The mortality rate increased with increasing exposure time and was highest after 48 hours.