Phytochemicals, Antioxidant and Antiproliferative Studies of Some Medicinal Plants from Indian Sub-continent

Aims: The Indian sub-continent has rich culture and a vast botanical diversity with high potential abilities of traditional medicine. However, there is a paucity of information available in scientific literature regarding the chemical and pharmacological properties of the natural products as anticancer agents. The objective of the present study was to evaluate the phytochemicals potential, total phenolics content, the presence of rutin and quercetin, antioxidant and antiproliferative activity, of Crotalaria juncea, Tinospora cordifolia and Rheum emodi methanolic extracts.

Study Design: Phytochemicals screening, total phenolics content, rutin and quercetin determination, in vitro antioxidant activity and antiproliferative activity against human breast cancer MDA-MB-231 cells.

Place and Duration of Study: Natural Products Research Lab, Department of Biochemistry, King George’s Medical University, May 2014 and August 2015.

Methodology: The phytochemicals, total phenolics content and antioxidant potential were assessed by qualitative phytochemicals screening, Folin-Ciocalteu reagent and DPPH assay, respectively. High Performance Liquid Chromatography was used to estimate the level of rutin and quercetin. The antiproliferative activity was evaluated against human breast cancer (MDA-MB-231) cells by MTT and colony formation assay. Hoechst 33342 staining was performed to examine apoptosis.

Results: All extracts showed antiradical activity and presence of phenolics content along with different phytochemicals. HPLC analysis showed presence of rutin and quercetin in T. cordifolia and R. emodi, however, C. juncea showed only presence of rutin. Antiproliferative activity revealed that T. cordifolia showed highest activity with lowest IC50 (51.74±3.14 to 21.7±2.5 µg /mL) as compared with other extracts. Hoechst 33342 staining showed that T. cordifolia induced apoptosis in breast cancer cells.

Conclusion: Overall, this study demonstrated that methanolic extracts of above plants has potent antiproliferative and antioxidant activity along with different phytochemicals. This calls for further studies on the active components for proper assessment of their chemotherapeutic properties.