Cytotoxic extracts of ethnomedicinal plants: In vitro evaluation of anticancer activity and progress towards bioassay-guided isolation and characterization of active constituents
Abstract
Cancer is expected to claim 9 million deaths world-wide by the year 2015. Although there has been increasing sophistication of current therapeutic strategies, 40% of patients are still likely to die from the disease. Novel potent anticancer compounds are needed to address this growing issue of cancer. Despite skeptical connotations, traditional medicine has aroused renewed interest as worldwide efforts continue the search for novel compounds that exhibit potent and selective anticancer properties. Traditional medicine now poses as an invaluable ethnopharmacological approach to the non-random selection of bioactive plants, on the basis of their folkloric medicinal usage. Plants that are used as traditional medicine represent a relevant pool for selecting plant candidates that may have anticancer properties. In this study, the ethnomedicinal approach was used to select 78 medicinal plants native to Nigeria, on the basis of their local or traditional uses that have not been reported to have anticancer activity. 61 of the selected plants were evaluated for cytoxicity and selectivity in vitro against a panel of mammalian tumor cell lines. The antitumor activity of methanolic extracts obtained from 10 of the selected plants, was exceedingly potent with activity ranging from 0.1 – 15 μg/mL of the crude extracts. Further characterization of cytotoxic activity, chemical analysis, including bio-assay guided fractionation have been conducted. The investigation of the possible mode of activity of the most cytotoxic plant, and prospects for future work and ongoing isolation and identification of pure antitumor compounds have been detailed in this study.
Subject Area
Botany|Cellular biology
Recommended Citation
Saudat A Adamson,
"Cytotoxic extracts of ethnomedicinal plants: In vitro evaluation of anticancer activity and progress towards bioassay-guided isolation and characterization of active constituents"
(2009).
ETD Collection for Tennessee State University.
Paper AAI3356148.
https://digitalscholarship.tnstate.edu/dissertations/AAI3356148