Abstract
Cancer patients seek alternative remedies such as traditional medicinal plants for safe and effective treatment and help overcome the side effects of conventional therapy. Current knowledge indicates that extracts of Strobilanthes crispus of the Acanthaceae family exhibit potent anticancer properties in vitro and are non-toxic in vivo. S. crispus was also reported to be protective against chemical hepatocarcinogenesis. We previously showed that a bioactive fraction of S. crispus leaves also synergized with tamoxifen to cause apoptosis of human breast cancer cell lines without damaging non-malignant epithelial cells. The present study aimed to evaluate the antitumor effect of S. crispus dichloromethane fraction (F3) using N-methyl-N-Nitrosourea (NMU)-induced rat mammary tumor model. Tumor regression was observed in 75% of the rats following 8-week oral administration of F3 with no secondary tumour formation and no signs of anemia or infection. However, no improvement in the liver and renal function profiles was observed. Major constituents of F3 were identified as lutein, 131-hydroxy-132-oxo-pheophytin a, campesterol, stigmasterol, β-sitosterol, pheophytin a and 132-hydroxy-pheophytin a. These compounds however, may not significantly contribute to the antitumor effect of F3.
Highlights
Faced with the risk of side effects and reduced efficacy of modern chemotherapeutic drugs such as tamoxifen [1,2,3], cancer patients seek alternative remedies that are believed to be safe and effective, despite no proper or rigorous scientific analyses performed
The ability of hexane, DCM and MeOH extracts of S. crispus to induce cell death was evaluated on MDA-MB-231 and MCF-7 breast cancer cells
Cytotoxicity was found to increase drastically from F1 to F3 and decreased in F4 and F5 (Fig 1). This indicated that the bioactive constituents in S. crispus were of medium polarity since F2, F3 and F4 were eluted with mid polar solvents
Summary
Faced with the risk of side effects and reduced efficacy of modern chemotherapeutic drugs such as tamoxifen [1,2,3], cancer patients seek alternative remedies that are believed to be safe and effective, despite no proper or rigorous scientific analyses performed. Scientific research on medicinal plants is becoming more significant in recent years with a PLOS ONE | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0126426 May 22, 2015
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