Cytotoxic and antioxidant activity of the polysaccharide isolated from the seeds of Strychnos potatorum

Abstract

Abstract Nonconventional natural treatments have gained wide acceptance due to their promise of a cure with minimal or no side effects in cancer, but little scientific evidence exists. The polysaccharides were extracted from the seeds of Strychnos potatorum and were successively purified by chromatography on DEAE cellulose and Sephadex G-100 column. The purified polysaccharide was identified to be a heteropolysaccharide 1,4 β-D- galactomannan characterized using FTIR, NMR. The molecular weight was determined to be ∼ 1.28 X 10 4 Da through MALDI-TOF analysis. Presented, here is the first use of the polysaccharide isolated from the seeds of Strychnos potatorum exhibiting promising cytotoxic activity with IC50 of 365 μg/mL against human breast cancer cell line MCF-7. The antioxidant property of the polysaccharide was also evaluated and they possess potential scavenging activity for DPPH assay and hydroxy radical scavenging assay with increase in concentration.