Abstract
Developing antitumor drugs from natural products is receiving increasing interest worldwide due to limitations and side effects of therapy strategies for the second leading cause of disease related mortality, cancer. The antiproliferative activity of a methanolic extract from the aerial parts of Marrubium persicum extract was assessed with the MCF-7 breast cancer cell line using the MTT test for cell viability and cytotoxicity indices. In addition, antioxidant properties of the extract were evaluated by measuring its ability to scavenge free DPPH radicals. Moreover, the total phenolic and flavonoid content of the extract was determined based on Folin-Ciocalteu and colorimetric aluminum chloride methods. The findings of the study for the antiproliferative activity of the methanolic extract of M. persicum showed that growth of MCF-7 cells was inhibited by the extract in a dose and time dependent manner, where a gradual increase of cytotoxicity effect has been achieved setting out on 200 μg/mL concentration of the plant extract. The antioxidant assay revealed that the extract was a strong scavenger of DPPH radicals with an RC50 value of 52 μg/mL. The total phenolic and flavonoids content of the plant extract was 409.3 mg gallic acid equivalent and 168.9 mg quercetin equivalent per 100g of dry plant material. Overall, M. persicum possesses potential antiproliferative and antioxidant activities on the malignant MCF-7 cell line that could be attributed to the high content of phenolics and flavonoids, and therefore warrants further exploration.
Highlights
Of ancient times, plants are being applied with a wide spectrum of biologically active compounds in the treatment of abundant diseases which are providing the researchers new visions both in their natural forms and as templates for synthetic modifications of novel drugs
According to the findings of the free radical scavenging capacity of the extract, M. persicum revealed satisfactory antioxidant activity, the concentration of M. persicum methanolic extract resulting in a 50% reduction of the free radical were lower when compared to the control quercetin with RC50 values of 52 μg/mL for the former and 3 μg/mL for the latter
The MTT assay on the cytotoxic activity of the methanolic extract of the plant on MCF-7 cell line suggested the extract was moderately cytotoxic to MCF-7 cells in a dose and time dependent manner
Summary
Plants are being applied with a wide spectrum of biologically active compounds in the treatment of abundant diseases which are providing the researchers new visions both in their natural forms and as templates for synthetic modifications of novel drugs. Drug discovery from natural products for confronting cancer has bring in the rational opportunity to attain most new clinical applications of plant secondary metabolites and their derivatives (Balunas and Kinghorn, 2005). Free radicals that are generated during oxidative stress are instable species since they have unpaired electrons that search for stability through electron pairing with biological macromolecules like proteins, lipids, and DNA of healthy human cells. DNA and protein damage, lipid peroxidation, cancer, ageing, and inflammatory activities are the major consequences of the oxidative stress conditions (Sharhar et al, 2008). Application of plants in treatment of different diseases including cancers is inevitable and it seems to be the basis for modern medical science, as they are considered to be great sources of new drugs (Jones et al, 2006; Kim, 2008; Aune et al, 2009; Hasan et al, 2011; Woo and Kim, 2011)
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