Anticancer activity of an ehnomedicinal plant Croton caudatus Geiseler, Kam sabut in cultured HeLa cells

Abstract

Abstract Kam sabut or Croton caudatus is ethnomedicinally used to treat liver diseases, fever and sprains by the traditional medicinal practitioners in Northeast India. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the anticancer activity of Kam sabut in cultured HeLa cells. The cytotoxicity of 0, 20, 40, 80, 160 or 320 μg/ml chloroform, ethanol, and aqueous extracts of Croton caudatus was studied in cultured HeLa cells by MTT, clonogenic, apoptosis and enzymes assays. The results of MTT assay showed that treatment of HeLa cells with different doses of various extracts caused a rise in the cell killing effect of different extracts of Croton caudatus depending on the exposure dose and the ethanol extract was most cytotoxic. Therefore, remaining studies were performed using ethanol extract. Exposure of HeLa cells to 0, 20, 40, 80, 160 or 320 μg/ml ethanol extract led to a decline in the cell survival and increase in micronuclei and apoptosis induction depending on its dose. The ethanol extract of Kam sabut reduced glutathione concentration accompanied by an increased lipid peroxidation and release of lactate dehydrogenase at 0, 2, 4, 6, 8, 12 and 24 h post-treatment. Our results demonstrate that the cell killing effect of ethanol extract of Croton caudatus is due to DNA damage induction as indicated by increased frequency of micronuclei, and apoptosis, accompanied by the reduced glutathione concentration and increased lipid peroxidation and lactate dehydrogenase release.