Abstract
Antioxidants, in addition to protection against oxidative stress, also possess anti-inflammatory and anticancer potentials. In this work, the ethanolic extract (EE) of Euphorbia inarticulata has been evaluated for antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and anticancer activities. The antioxidant activity showed that EE significantly scavenges DPPH (IC50 = 54.56 +/- 2.38 mu g/ml) and H2O2(77.44 +/- 2.76 mu g/ml), whereas ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) and total antioxidant capacity (TAC) were found to be 100.93 +/- 4.15 mu g/ml and 46.72 +/- 3.86 mg gallic acid equi/gm, respectively. The EE exhibited significant inhibition on COX-1 (IC50 79.84 mu g/ml) and protein denaturation (IC5057.6 mu g/ml), compared to indomethacin and diclofenac, respectively. Furthermore, EE was found to be effective in killing Huh-7 and HeLa cancerous cells with IC50 104.62 (SI 2.36) and 145.11 mu g/ml (SI 1.7), respectively, while doxorubicin displayed IC50 0.71 (Huh-7) and 2.63 mu g/ml (HeLa), whereas it was safe on normal MRC-5 cells. The HPLC analysis showed the presence of ellagic acid, caffeic acid, gallic acid, syringic acid, cinnamic acid and catechol which may be responsible for the promising antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and anticancer potentials exerted by the ethanolic extract of E. inarticulata. These results conclude that Euphorbia inarticulata ethanolic extract has anti-inflammatory and anticancer effects by triggering oxidative stress.