Abstract
The anti-tumor activity and chemopreventive potential of four Ayurvedic herbs viz. Curcuma longa L., Ocimum sanctum L., Tinospora cordifolia (Wild) Miers ex Hook.f & Thomas and Zizyphus mauritiana Lam. were evaluated using Dalton Lymphoma ascites (DLA) tumor model in Swiss Albino mice. The outcome was assessed using survival time, peritoneal ascitic fluid (Tumor volume) and hematological indices as parameters. Animals were divided into five groups (n = 6) viz. one DLA control and four Herb + DLA treated groups. All the four herb + DLA groups were pre-treated with respective herbs for 7 days and hematological indices were measured for entire five groups. On day-8 animals were inoculated with 1x10(6) DLA cells i.p., and Herb + DLA groups were continued with oral herbal treatment for 21-days. Hematological parameters and tumor volume were assessed to find the effects of herbs. Short term in vitro cytotoxicity was determined by Trypan Blue exclusion method and LDH leakage assay using different concentrations of herbal extracts and 5-FU as a positive control and IC(50) for each herbal extract and 5-FU were determined. Oral administration of crude herb increased the survival time and decreased the peritoneal ascitic fluid content significantly. Hb, RBCs and total WBC which were altered by DLA inoculation were restored significantly by all the herbs except O. sanctum. All the four herbs showed in vitro cytotoxic activity against DLA cell-line. Moreover inter group comparison of all the four herbs for anti-tumor activity showed efficacy in the following order--T. cordifolia > Z. mauritiana > or = C. longa > O. sanctum respectively.
Highlights
Cancer has been a leading cause of death in the age group 45-64 yrs in developed countries
None of the control group survived beyond 30 days, while 100% survival was observed in Curcuma longa (CL) Tinospora cordifolia (TC) and ZM group and 83.4% in Ocimum sanctum (OS) group
Hematological parameters were repeated after 21 days of inoculation of Dalton Lymphoma ascites (DLA) cells to see the effects of DLA tumor in entire five-groups (Table 2)
Summary
Cancer has been a leading cause of death in the age group 45-64 yrs in developed countries. With changing standard of living and food habits and due to availability of curative treatment for many infectious diseases, cancer is surpassing other illnesses as a principle cause of morbidity and mortality even in developing countries (Noting, 2001). Radiotherapy and chemotherapy- the established treatment modalities for various cancers are costly, mutilating, having serious side effects and associated with residual morbidity as well as frequent relapses. Searching the Ayurvedic arena for medicinal herbs with probable antitumor activity, there are multitudes of them having various pharmacological actions but many of them are difficult to identify, scarcely available, some have toxic side effects and are used infrequently; so we decided to select a few herbs that are well known, available, cheap, whose identity is noncontroversial, free from any known toxicity and that are in vogue for centuries. Curcuma longa L., Ocimum sanctum L., Tinospora cordifolia (Wild.) Miers ex Hook. f. & Thoms. and Zizyphus mauritiana Lam. having antioxidant, immunomodulatory and chemopreventive potential, were selected to evaluate their ability and relative efficacy to prevent or modify the course of DLA in Swiss albino mice
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