In vitro cytotoxic activity of certain succulent plants against human colon, breast and liver cancer cell lines

© 2020 SAAB Among the plants which are determined to be a promising source of anticarcenogenic agents are members of Agavaceae family which are common in tropical and subtropical regions such as Egypt. In this study, cytotoxic activity were assessed for the methanolic extracts and fractions from five members of Agavaceae family: Sansevieria cylindrica Bojer., Polianthes tuberosa L., Sansevieria trifasciata Prain., Yucca filamentosa L. and Furcraea watsoniana Hort. against MCF-7 (breast), HepG-2 (hepatoma), and Caco-2 (colon) cancer cell lines by MTT method. The n-hexane fraction of P. tuberosa leaves extract demonstrated strong cytotoxic potential against all three cancer cell lines (CC50<20 µg/ml). The ethyl acetate fractions of Y. filamentosa and F. watsoniana leaves significantly inhibited proliferation of hepatocellular HepG-2 (CC50 = 6.21 µg/ml and 19.07 µg/ml, respectively) and intestinal epithelium Caco-2 carcinoma cells (CC50 = 18.86 µg/ml and 23.25 µg/ml, respectively). Presumably, the cytotoxic activity exhibited by n-hexane fraction of P. tuberosa, ethyl acetate fractions of Y. filamentosa and F. watsoniana may be related to the steroidal saponins that are present in these samples

Plant materials as a potential source of antitumor agents

Many medicinal plants are used around the world to create new medicinal products. The effectiveness of these products is associated with a complex synergistic interaction of various plant components. In this study, we investigated the extract cytotoxicity of the following five plant species belonging to the Agavaceae (Asparagaceae) family: Sansevieria cylindrical, S. trifasciata, Polianthes tuberosa, Yucca filamentosa, and Furcraea gigantea (var. watsoniana). The plant material was collected in different regions of Egypt. For each plant species, the half maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) in relation to the human lung adenocarcinoma cell culture (A549) was determined with the help of the IC50 calculator. For the MTT test, we used aqueous solutions of the methanol extracts of S. cylindrical and S. trifasciata in the concentrations of 100, 200, 300, 500, 900, 1300, 1700, and 2000 ?g/mL, as well as P. tuberosa, Y. filamentosa, and F. gigantea in the concentrations of 10, 20, 50, 100, 300, 500, 1000, and 1500 μg/mL. We found that the extracts of S. trifasciata leaves and rhizomes cause no significant effect on the viability of A549 tumor cells in all the studied concentrations. The aqueous solutions of S. cylindrica leaves and rhizome methanol extracts of with increasing concentration reduced the survival of A549 tumor cells more than twice as compared with the control group. The lowest IC50 values were obtained for the extracts of P. tuberosa and F. gigantea leaves: 62.5 and 82 μg/mL, respectively. The results confirm anticarcinogenic potential of the extracts of P. tuberosa and F. gigantea leaves, which is important for development of new phytobiotechnologies aimed at the synthesis of effective medications based on the secondary metabolites of these plants