In Vitro Phytochemical Screening, Cytotoxicity Studies of Curcuma longa Extracts with Isolation and Characterisation of Their Isolated Compounds.

Madhuri Grover,Sukhbir Singh,Neelam Sharma,Mohit Sanduja,Shatha Ghazi Felemban,Sridevi Chigurupati,Simona Bungau,Tapan Behl,Tarun Virmani,Mahesh Rachamalla,Amal M Alsubayiel,Aayush Sehgal,Abdullah Farasani

doi:10.3390/molecules26247509

Abstract

The Curcuma longa plant is endowed with multiple traditional and therapeutic utilities and is here explored for its phytochemical constituents and cytotoxic potential. Turmeric rhizomes were extracted from three different solvents and screened for the presence of different phytochemical constituents, observation of which indicated that the polar solvents favoured extraction of greater versatile phytochemical constituents. These extracts were investigated for their cytotoxic potential by MTT (3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide) assay on three different of cell lines including SCC-29B (oral cancer cell line), DU-145 (prostate cancer cell line) and the Vero cell line (healthy cell line/non-cancerous cell line). This assay was performed by taking three extracts from isolated curcuminoids and a pure bioactive compound bisdemethoxycurcumin (BD). Bisdemethoxycurcumin was isolated from curcuminoids and purified by column and thin-layer chromatography, and its structural characterisation was performed with different spectroscopic techniques such as FTIR, NMR (1H Proton and 13C Carbon-NMR) and LC-MS. Amongst the extracts, the ethanolic extracts exhibited stronger cytotoxic potential against the oral cancer cell line (SCC-29B) with an IC50value of 11.27 μg/mL, and that this was too low of a cytotoxicity against the Vero cell line. Although, curcuminoids have also shown a comparable cytotoxic potential against SCC-29B (IC50 value 16.79 μg/mL), it was not as potent against the ethanolic extract, and it was even found to be cytotoxic against healthy cell lines at a very low dose. While considering the isolated compound, bisdemethoxycurcumin, it also possessed a cytotoxic potential against the prostate cancer cell line (DU-145) (IC50 value of 93.28 μg/mL), but was quite safe for the healthy cell line in comparison to doxorubicin.

Highlights

Cancer is a chronic inflammatory-linked disorder and the second leading cause of death worldwide
It is quite impossible to extract every phytochemical constituent via a single solvent
The results show that the ethanolic extract of C. longa showed comparatively more cytotoxic potential in comparison to the non-polar and aqueous mixtures

Summary

Introduction

Cancer is a chronic inflammatory-linked disorder and the second leading cause of death worldwide. Around 0.64 million were men with the highest fraction of oral (10.3%), lung (5.5%) and stomach (4.5%) cancer types, while women were reported with breast (13.5%), cervix (9.4%) and ovary (3.5%) cancer as the top three cancers amongst the total 0.67 million cases [7]. The rapid prevalence of the disease creates much of the financial and psychological burden on people living in developed and developing countries, thereby constantly increasing the demand for a more economical, targeted and effective approach. Many therapeutic approaches are available, such as surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, immunotherapy, cancer vaccination, photodynamic therapy, stem cell therapy or their combination, all these are associated with many limitations such astoxic reactions [8], low bioavailability, non-targeted or monotargeted action and rapid clearance [9,10,11]. Several phytochemicals, such as curcumin, epigallocatechin, isothiocyanates and garcinol, are under clinical trials and can soon hit the market [15]

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Conclusion