Phytochemical Constituents and In-Vitro Anticancer Activity of some Medicinal Plant Extracts against MCF-7 and MDA-MB-435 Human Breast Cancer Cell L

Abstract

Breast cancer (BC) is a malignancy, considered as a global and local health hazard. Searching for new naturally occurring anticancer medications with few adverse effects is attracting attention worldwide. This study aimed to screen the phytochemical components of ethanol extracts of eight Sudanese medicinal plants (Ocimum basilicum leaves, Mentha longifolia leaves, Linum usitatissimum seeds, Allium sativum L bulb, Nigella sativa seeds, Piper nigrum L. fruits, Zingiber officinale rhizome, and Foeniculum vulgare seeds), to evaluate and compare their cytotoxic effects against two types of BC cell lines and to estimate their safety toward normal cell lines. The extracts of the chosen plants were obtained using an ultrasonic-aided extraction process, and their components were characterized by GC-MS. The cytotoxic effects of ethanol extracts were tested in vitro against human breast estrogen receptor-positive MCF-7, triple negative MDA-MB-435, and umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC) normal cell lines using the MTT assay. The ethanol extracts were found to be rich in varied phytochemical components. Mentha longifolia and Ocimum basilicum ethanol extracts exerted the greatest activity against MDA-MB-435 with IC50 equal to 0.7437±0.31 and 16.78±2.47µg/ml, respectively. While Linum usitatissimum, Allium sativum, and Nigella sativa ethanol extracts exhibited significant cytotoxic effects on estrogen receptor-positive MCF-7 type of BC cell line with comparable IC50 values of 2.008±0.18, 8.661±0.25 and 10.072±0.18µg/ml, respectively. All ethanol extracts showed weak cytotoxic effects (IC50 ˃ 100µg/ml) against HUVEC with high selectivity index (SI) values. These findings potentiate the need for further in vivo anti-cancer assessments for the active extracts and their components.