Abstract
Moringa oleifera leaves extracted with methanol and dichloromethane were screened for antioxidant activity. The in vitro cancer antiproliferative and chemopreventive properties were also investigated. Radical scavenging assays with 1, 1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) and 2,2´-azino-bis 3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid (ABTS) were used to determine the antioxidant activity. The antiproliferative assay was evaluated on three types of cancer cell lines: hepatocarcinoma (HepG2), colorectal adenocarcinoma (Caco-2) and breast adenocarcinoma (MCF-7), using 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide (MTT) reduction assay. The in vitro cancer chemoprevention was performed using quinone reductase (QR) induction assay on hepatoma (Hepa-1c1c7). The chemopreventive activity of the extracts was expressed as concentration to double QR activity (CD value). The methanol extract showed higher free radical scavenging activity than the dichloromethane extract (IC50 = 1.60±0.03 mg/ml in DPPH assay and IC50 = 1.02±0.06 mg/ml in ABTS assay). In the antiproliferative assay, the IC50 of dichloromethane extract varied from 112 to 133 µg/ml for HepG2, Caco-2 and MCF-7 cancer cells, but became more than 250 µg/ml for the methanol extract. In the chemopreventive assay, the dichloromethane extract had capacity to induce QR activity significantly (CD value = 91.36±1.26 μg/ml), while the methanol extract had no inductive effect. This study provides evidence that M. oleifera leaves possess antioxidant activity, as well as cytotoxic and chemopreventive properties. Therefore, it might be beneficial as a medicinal plant for alternative novel anticancer drugs and nutraceutical products. Key words: Moringa oleifera, antioxidant activity, quinone reductase, antiproliferation, cancer chemoprevention.
Highlights
Cancer is the leading cause of mortality worldwide
It has been reported that the leaf extract had potent antiproliferative activity and apoptosis inducing capacity on tumor (KB) cell line (Sreelatha et al, 2011), and it increased the cytotoxicity of chemotherapy on pancreatic cancer cells (Berkovich et al, 2013)
The β-napthoflavone, flavin adenine dinucleotide (FAD), nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADP), menadione, dicoumarol, digitonin, glucose 6phosphate, crystal violet, glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) and MTT were purchased from Sigma Chemical Co
Summary
Cancer is the leading cause of mortality worldwide. According to the cancer reports published by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Cancer Research Fund, the incidence of cancer is still increasing especially due to diet, environment and carcinogenic virus infections (WHO, 2008; World Cancer Research Fund, 2007). Moringa oleifera (M. oleifera) or drumstick is a member of Moringaceae, and it is grown extensively in many Southeast Asian countries in Thailand, India, Philippines and Pakistan (Fuglie, 2001) It has long been known as a food plant in Thai cuisine and as an ingredient of Indian traditional medicine (Wutythamawech, 1997; Mishra et al, 2011). Chadamas et al (2010) reported that tender pods decreased the for-mation of erythrocyte micronucleus in mice injected with 7,12dimethylbenz(a)anthracene. It demonstrated inhibitory potential against azoxymethane-induced colon carcinogenesis (Budda et al, 2011). It has been reported that the leaf extract had potent antiproliferative activity and apoptosis inducing capacity on tumor (KB) cell line (Sreelatha et al, 2011), and it increased the cytotoxicity of chemotherapy on pancreatic cancer cells (Berkovich et al, 2013)
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