EVALUATION OF IN VITRO AND IN VIVO ANTICANCER ACTIVITY OF THE EXTRACTS OF KEDROSTIS ROSTRATA

T.S. Arun*, Rakesh Kumar Jat and J. Jaslin Edward

ABSTRACT

The present study was designed with the object of exploring the anticancer property of the extracts of aerial parts of Kedrostis rostrata by in vitro and in vivo methods. Initially, the petroleum ether, chloroform, ethyl acetate and methanol extracts were screened in vitro by MTT assay using MCF7 and SKMEL cell lines. The methanol extract showed a significant activity in the in vitro evaluation. Based on the results of in vitro evaluation, the methanol extract was selected for the in vivo evaluation on Swiss albino mice with tumour induced by Ehrlich ascites carcinoma cells. Standard drug 5-fluorouracil (20mg.kg-1) was used for the comparative evaluation. Initially, the methanol extract was subjected to toxicity evaluation. The results showed that the ED50 of the extract was 200mg.kg-1. In the in vivo evaluation, two doses of extracts, 200 and 400mg.kg-1 were subjected to screening. Various aspects viz., clinical, hematological and biochemical parameters of the experimental animals were analyzed in the in vivo evaluation. The results showed that the animals treated with the methanol extract showed significant reduction in body weight comparing with tumor control animals. In case of average life span, the tumor control animals showed the life span of 47% whereas, animals treated with the methanol extract at the dose of 200 and 400mg.kg-1 showed the life span of 73% and 78% respectively. The reduction in the viable tumor cell count and changes in hematological and biochemical parameters also support the antitumor nature of the methanol extract of K. rostrata. From these studies, it is clear that further works needed to be done in the future for the development of clinically useful chemotherapeutic agents.

Keywords: Kedrostis rostrata extracts, MTT assay, Swiss albino mice, Ehrlich ascites carcinoma cells.