Abstract
Therapeutic treatments with Artemisia annua have a long-established tradition in various diseases due to its antibacterial, antioxidant, antiviral, anti-malaria and anti-cancer effects. However, in relation to the latter, virtually all reports focused on toxic effects of A. annua extracts were obtained mostly through conventional maceration methods. In the present study, an innovative extraction procedure from A. annua, based on pressurised cyclic solid–liquid (PCSL) extraction, resulted in the production of a new phytocomplex with enhanced anti-cancer properties. This extraction procedure generated a pressure gradient due to compressions and following decompressions, allowing to directly perform the extraction without any maceration. The toxic effects of A. annua PCSL extract were tested on different cells, including three cancer cell lines. The results of this study clearly indicate that the exposure of human, murine and canine cancer cells to serial dilutions of PCSL extract resulted in higher toxicity and stronger propensity to induce apoptosis than that detected by subjecting the same cells to Artemisia extracts obtained through canonical extraction by maceration. Collected data suggest that PCSL extract of A. annua could be a promising and economic new therapeutic tool to treat human and animal tumours.
Highlights
Artemisia annua is a member of the Asteraceae family, with therapeutic properties mainly related to its content in artemisinin, a sesquiterpene lactone produced in the trichomes, which presents an endoperoxide bridge indispensable for its bioactivities [1].Artemisinin and its derivatives are active ingredients at the basis of most antimalarial treatments [2], as well as present intriguing anticancer properties related to their capability to arrest cell growth, interfere with the cell cycle and/or activate multiple cell death pathways in cancer cells [3,4,5]
The biological properties of A. annua pressurized cyclic solid-liquid (PCSL) extract have not been fully clarified; it is conceivable to suppose that the high levels of artemisinin and other phytochemicals detected in this product could have a positive impact on its anticancer properties compared to other preparations [2]
Cytotoxicity of serial dilutions of PCSL hydroalcoholic extract and mother tincture of A. annua was compared by MTT assay on normal and tumour murine fibroblasts
Summary
Artemisia annua is a member of the Asteraceae family, with therapeutic properties mainly related to its content in artemisinin, a sesquiterpene lactone produced in the trichomes, which presents an endoperoxide bridge indispensable for its bioactivities [1]. It is widely reported that the extraction strategies can significantly affect the potential therapeutic efficacy of obtained samples mainly due to their chemical composition [13,14,15] In this context, an innovative technique, based on pressurized cyclic solid-liquid (PCSL) extraction, was recently demonstrated to be significantly more efficient than the traditional methodologies used to obtain mother tincture (European Pharmacopeia) in extracting phytochemicals from A. annua [2]. The biological properties of A. annua PCSL extract have not been fully clarified; it is conceivable to suppose that the high levels of artemisinin and other phytochemicals detected in this product could have a positive impact on its anticancer properties compared to other preparations [2] In this framework, the present study was mainly focused on assessment of the effects of A. annua PCSL extract, compared to canonical mother tincture, on four different cell lines: 1. Collected results indicate that the phytocomplex achievable with this extraction strategy exerts significant cell toxicity, with a promising trend more accentuated on tumour cells, de facto opening the way to an alternative approach in the study of the plant extracts’ applicability
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