Anticancer Activity of Oldenlandia Diffusa & Viola Philippica Car

Abstract

Oldenlandia diffusa (OD, Bai Hua She She Cao) and Viola philippica Car. (VPC, Zi Hua Di Ding) are both commonly used traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). Although studies have demonstrated their anticancer activities on cancer cells both in vitro and in vivo, no systematic reports were carried out. The objective of this study was to examine their cytotoxic activities in vitro. We used the ethanol extracts of these two herbs and examined their cytotoxic effect on four cancer cell lines and two non-cancer cell lines using an MTT cytotoxicity assay. The results showed that the ethanol extracts of OD and VPC effectively inhibited the growth of all the cancer cell lines, particularly MiaPacA-2 cancer cells. Significantly less cytotoxicity was observed in non-cancer cell line NIH3T3. We also tested the drug sensitivity of OD and VPC in a P-glycoprotein (P-gp) overexpressing multidrug resistant cell line KB-C2. Our results showed that OD and VPC can potently inhibit the growth of KB-C2 cells. Therefore, this study has revealed the remarkable anticancer activity of these two TCMs. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report that shows potential anticancer activity in multidrug resistant cells in extracts of OD and VPC using scientific methods of evaluation.