Exploring Anticancer Activities of Selected Medicinal Plants

Abstract

Cancer is one of the most global health care problems and is a second leading newlinecause of death globally. The current cancer therapies which include surgery, newlineradiotherapy and chemotherapy have severe side effects and high recurrence rate made newlinethem less effective. These therapies can only extend patients lifespan by few years. newlineThus, there is urgent need to utilize alternative therapy to treat cancer. The better newlinecancer treatment with milder or no side effects are desperately needed. Therefore, newlineefforts are still being made to explore naturally occurring anticancer compound which newlinewould prevent or slow down cancer development. newlinePlants contain various bioactive phytoconstituents which possess medicinal value newlineand has the ability to alter some physiological actions in human body. As compared to newlinesynthetic chemotherapeutic drugs, plant derived natural chemicals are safe, no side newlineeffects and having high specificity and are generally available in ingestive form for newlinecancer treatment. newlineHere, primarily we used two plant samples for the screening of anticancer activity. newlineThe plant samples were extracted with three different solvents based on their polarity newlineand hence we obtained twelve extracts. newlineAll the extracts were screened for qualitative and quantitative phytochemical newlineanalysis. Where, qualitative analysis revealed presence of alkaloids, flavonoids, newlinephenols, tannins, phenols, terpenoids, steroids, glycosides, carbohydrates, proteins and newlineamino acids. While, quantitative analysis of total phenol and total flavonoid revealed newlinedifferent concentrations when calculated in terms of gallic acid and quercetin newlineequivalent respectively. newlineThe extracts were tested for DPPH radical scavenging assay to investigate newlineantioxidant activity. Ethanol extract of inflorescence of B. oxyodonta and stem of newlineC. halicacabum shown promising good percentage of DPPH radical scavenging newlineactivity comparing with standard ascorbic acid. newlineAbstract newlineii newlineThe extracts were also tested for In vitro Cytotoxicity by MTT assay. Here we newlinetested Cytotoxicity against three cancer cell l