Abstract
Chemotherapeutic agents for cancer are highly toxic to healthy tissues and hence alternative medicine avenues are widely researched. Majority of the recent studies on alternative medicine suggested that
Amoora rohituka
possesses considerable antitumor and antibacterial properties. In this work,
rohituka
and
chittagonga
, fractionated with petroleum ether, dichloromethane, and ethanol, were explored for their anticancer potential against two breast cancer (MCF-7 and HTB-126) and three pancreatic cancer (Panc-1, Mia-Paca2, and Capan1). The human foreskin fibroblast, Hs68, was also included. Cytotoxicity of each extract was analyzed using the MTT assay and label-free photonic crystal biosensor assay. A concentration series of each extract was performed on the six cell lines. For MCF-7 cancer cells, the
chittagonga
(Pet-Ether and CH
2
Cl
2
) and
rohituka
(Pet-Ether) extracts induced cytotoxicity; the
chittagonga
(EtoAC) and
rohituka
(MeOH) extracts did not induce cytotoxicity. For HTB126, Panc-1, Mia-Paca2, and Capan-1 cancer cells, only the
chittagonga
CH
2
Cl
2
extract showed a significant cytotoxic effect. The extracts were not cytotoxic to normal fibroblast Hs68 cells, which may be correlated to the specificity of
Amoora
extracts in targeting cancerous cells. Based on these results, further examination of the potential anticancer properties
Amoora
species and the identification of the active ingredients of these extracts is warranted.