Abstract
Medicinal plants are considered a promising alternative for the treatment of cancer. Plants were extracted with different solvents using Soxhlet apparatus. The cytotoxicity of the extracts was evaluated on human colon adenocarcinoma cell line (LoVo) and human breast adenocarcinoma cell line (MDA-MB-231) using 3-(4, 5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2, 5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) and Lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) assays. Induction of apoptosis was studied using fluorescent staining (Hoechst 33258). A significant reduction of cell was observed in dose dependent manner.
Hexane and ethyl acetate extract of Rutagraveolens and chloroform extract of Convolvulus arvensis induced 50% death at the concentration ranging between 100-200 mu g/mL, however, the other extracts induced 50% death at the concentration ranging between 225-700 mu g/mL. Alternation in the chromatin condensation was observed in LoVo cells treated with most cytotoxic extracts. In conclusion, the present data revealed that R. graveolens and C. arvensis may inhibit the proliferation of colon and breast cancer cells and induce apoptosis.