ANTIPROLIFERATIVE AND APOPTOTIC EFFECTS OF FRACTIONATED EXTRACTS OF PICRALIMA NITIDA ON HUMAN BREAST CANCER CELL LINE

Abstract

Picralima nitida has widely varied applications in Nigeria folk medicine. The aim of this study was to establish the proximate analytic parameters and to evaluate the cell proliferative and apoptotic effects of the crude and fractionated extracts of the plant using breast cancer cell line. The proximate analysis of the crude powdered drug was carried out using standard methods. The crude powdered drug was extracted with methanol by maceration at room temperature and the concentrated extract was further partitioned with petroleum ether, chloroform and ethyl acetate in order of increasing polarity to obtain the different fractions. The antiproliferative and apoptotic effects of the crude methanolic extract (10 ?g/ml) and fractionated extracts (10 ?g/ml) were subjected to in-vitro anticancer evaluation using breast cancer cell line (MCF-7) measured by flow cytometry. The crude powdered plant material was found to have a moisture content of 21.23% and a total ash value of 9.92%. There was a significant decrease in percentage proliferation (P<0.01) of crude extract treated cells compared to the DMSO control. However the extent of apoptosis was not significant (P < 0.1) compared to the DMSO control. Among the fractions, the chloroform fraction demonstrated a significant (P < 0.001) antiproliferative activity against eostrogen receptor positive breast cancer cell line (MCF-7). The proliferative phase (G2 + S) was decreased by 15 % in comparison to the DMSO control (39.34 ± 2.71 %). A significant (P < 0.001) apoptotic effect was also observed for the chloroform fraction. Other fractions did not show significant inhibition of proliferation and apoptosis of MCF-7. The root bark extract of Picralima nitida especially the chloroform fraction possesses good anticancer activity and can be potentially used as natural anticancer agent, particularly against breast cancer.