Abstract
Cancer continues to be a major health problem globally. Historically, plants have been studied for their anticancer effects. Centaurothamnus maximus is a native plant species found in Saudi Arabia and Yemen and is one of the least studied plants for its chemical constituents or biological activities. The present study aimed to explore the cytotoxic potential of C. maximus using different cell lines and conduct phytochemical analysis utilizing GC-MS analysis. Further, analysis of cell cycle and apoptosis induction were also conducted using flow cytometry. In this study, we found that C. maximus chloroform fraction (CMCF) exhibited the highest cytotoxicity towards MCF-7 cells with an IC50 value of 25.3 mu g/mL. Follow cytometric analysis displayed that CMCF led to dose-dependent accumulation of cells in GI phase and increase the number of apoptotic cells as shown by propidium iodide and Annexin V-FITC/PI staining respectively. Tritetracontane (27.14 %), lupeol (19.87 %), E-15-heptadecenal (10.4 A) and phytol (3, 7, 11, 15-tetramethyl-2-hexadecen-1-ol) (8.35 %) were the major constituents in CMCF. Overall, this study represents the first findings showing that C. maximus trigger antiproliferation activity via cell cycle arrest and apoptotic induction. The results of the present study confirmed the cytotoxic activity of C. maximus and further investigations can be done to understand its molecular mechanisms.