Abstract
Dipterocarpus alatus (Dipterocarpaceae) is a medicinal plant whose use is well known for the treatment of genito-urinary diseases. However, there is no report of its cytotoxic potential. In this study, the chemical composition, antioxidant and cytotoxic activities of extracts of the leaves, bark, twigs and oleo-resin from D. alatus are investigated. Cytotoxicity was measured by the neutral red (NR) assay against HCT116, SKLU1, SK-MEL2, SiHa and U937 cancer cell lines and antioxidant capacity was evaluated by DPPH, ABTS radical scavenging, and ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) assays. The chemical composition was analyzed by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Leaf, bark and twig extracts exhibited stronger antioxidant activity than oleo-resin, with bark extract showing the highest antioxidant activity and the highest total phenolic content. All samples showed more cytotoxic activity against the U937 cell line than HCT116, SKLU1, SK-MEL2 and SiHa cells with oleo-resin being more cytotoxic than melphalan against U937 cells. Chemical composition analysis of oleo-resin by GC-MS showed that the major components were sesquiterpenes, namely α-gurjunene (30.31%), (-)-isoledene (13.69%), alloaromadendrene (3.28%), β-caryophyllene (3.14%), γ-gurjunene (3.14%) and spathulenol (1.11%). The cytotoxic activity of oleo-resin can be attributed to the sesquiterpene content, whereas the cytotoxic and antioxidant activities of leaf, bark and twig extracts correlated to total phenolic content.
Highlights
The most common incidences of cancer in Thailand are breast, cervix, colorectal, liver and lung cancers which made up 59.2% of the cancer burden in 2012, including 4% for the incidence of leukemia [1] and 4% incidence of melanoma which is mostly responsible for skin cancer [2]
The primary aim of the present work is to investigate the potential anticancer and antioxidant activities of various plant parts of D. alatus and subsequently the chemical characterization of the given parts using gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC-MS) in an effort to underline the correlation between chemical content and biological activity
The chemotherapy sensitivity and treatment outcomes of any tested compounds can be varied between differing tumor cell types. These results indicate that the D. alatus leaf, bark and twig extracts have high selective cytotoxic activity against U937 cells with selective index (SI) values of 5.5, 4.7 and 3.9, respectively (Table 4)
Summary
The most common incidences of cancer in Thailand are breast, cervix, colorectal, liver and lung cancers which made up 59.2% of the cancer burden in 2012, including 4% for the incidence of leukemia [1] and 4% incidence of melanoma which is mostly responsible for skin cancer [2]. Cancer treatment is very costly, requiring expensive facilities, highly specialized health personnel and expensive drugs. Various approaches have been used for cancer treatment in addition to chemotherapy such as allopathic drugs for chemoprevention [3]. Chemotherapy generally leads to drug resistance and severe side effects [4]. Between 1940 and 2002, about 40% of all available anticancer drugs were natural products or natural products derived with 8% of those considered natural product mimics [5]. Medicinal plants have made a tremendous contribution to the development of new drugs against diseases, including cancer [6]
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