EXTRACTS OF FIVE MEDICINAL HERBS INDUCED CYTOTOXICITY IN BOTH HEPATOMA AND MYELOMA CELL LINES
Hanaa Hassanein1, Eman EL-Ahwany1, Faten Salah1, Olfat Hammam2, Laila Refaie3 and Manal Hamed3
1Immunology, 2Pathology and 3Medicinal Chemistry Departments, Theodor Bilharz Research Institute ,El-Nile Street, Warrak El-Hadar, Imbaba P.O. Box 30, Giza 12411, Egypt.
The aim of this study was to assess the effect of the crude methanol extracts of five herbs (Pelargonium zonale, Terminalia bellerica, Philodendron selloum, Ulmus pumila and Ulmus parvifolia) on human hepatoma and murine myeloma cell lines. Assessment included in vitro neutral red cytotoxicity assay and cytopathological diagnosis. IC50 values obtained in both cell lines using neutral red assay showed that the Ulmus pumila was the most effective in inducing cytotoxicity in Myeloma cell line, IC50 (14.27±2.13) and the plant extracts of both Terminalia bellerica and Philodendron selloum, were the most effective in inducing cytotoxicity in HepG2, IC50 (16.25±0.20, 17.51±0.70 respectively). Also, the result showed that there was no significant difference in the IC50 between the different plants extract in Myeloma cell line. However, in hepatoma cell line, the IC50 of both Terminalia bellerica and Philodendron selloum were significantly lower (p< 0.01) than the IC50 of Ulmus pumila, Ulmus parvifolia and Pelorgonium zonale. The results indicated that the in vitro NR assay of cytotoxic activities induced by plant methanol extracts were supported by the cytopathological changes on the same population of cells. Conclusions: Neutral red cytotoxicity assay is a suitable test for screening anti-cancer potential of natural products materials. The present results showed that Terminalia bellerica and Philodendron selloum methnol extracts induced cytotoxicity on HepG2 cells, while Ulmus pumila showed the highest cytotoxic effect on myeloma cell line, but not significant from the other plant extracts. The identification of the effect of individual constituents of each plant methanol extract is recommended. In vivo study on experimental level is needed to verify the mechanism of action.
June 2011