Evaluation of Antioxidant and Cytotoxic Potency of Thespesia populnea Leaf Extract

Abstract

A large tree called Thespesia populnea (Malvaceae) is found in the tropical and coastal forests of India. In different parts of the plant, T. populnea has been shown to have antifertility, antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, purgative, and hepatoprotective properties. The goal of the current investigation was to find out how T. populnea leaves affected the HCT15 colorectal cancer cell line. All the in vitro experiments were conducted using aqueous and ethanol extracts. Thespesia populnea L. was subjected to a preliminary phytochemical study, which found the presence of alkaloids, flavonoids, saponin, tannin, proteins, anthraquinone, polyphenol, and carbohydrates in both extracts with the exception of terpenoids and glycosides. The aqueous extract had the greatest total phenolic and flavonoid content, with 168.04 mg of GAE per g, 34.22 mg per g, and 4.81 mg per g, respectively. It also exhibited the highest DPPH radical scavenging activity, at 81.82 per cent. This research demonstrated that T. populnea leaf is a potential source of antioxidants. These extracts were examined for their capacity to kill colorectal cancer cells in a test tube (HCT15). Aqueous extract has a high extractive percentage of 55.56 per cent at 100 µg/ml. All of the investigated cell lines had a dose-dependent viability inhibition from both aqueous and ethanol extract.