Cytotoxicity assessment of the stem bark of Tieghemella heckelii Pierre ex. A Chev. (Sapotaceae) towards Vero and RD human cancer Cell Lines

Abstract

The present study aimed at investigating the cytotoxicity of the stem bark of Tieghemella heckelii Pierre ex. A Chev (Sapotaceae). For this purpose, plant extracts were put into contact separately with the different Vero and human RD cancer cell lines diluted in a 96 wells microplate after 24-hour incubation at 37°C. Thereafter, the absorbance was measured every 24 hour for two days, using Elisa reader spectrophotometer. The IC50 values obtained from multi-dose testing of ethanol extract against Vero cell lines ranged from 0.051 to 0.192 mg/mL. The results also showed Vero cell viability of 80.2%, and a mortality rate of 94.9% against RD cell lines whereas methanol extract displayed for the same experiment an IC50 ranging from 0.018 to 2.98 mg/mL with a cell viability of 67%, and a mortality rate of 95.6%. From these results, it could be concluded that the methanol extract of the stem bark showed higher cytotoxic activity towards RD cell lines. As for the ethanol extract, it showed significant non-cytotoxicity towards the Vero cell lines. In the light of this evidence, it can be claimed that the plant exhibited non-cytotoxic patterns against Vero cells and has anticancer potential.