In vitro anticancer screening of 24 locally used Nigerian medicinal plants

Abstract

Background: 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 several medicinal plants native to Nigeria, on the basis of their local or traditional uses. The collected plants were then evaluated for cytoxicity.

Methods: The antitumor activity of methanolic extracts obtained from 24 of the selected plants, were evaluated in vitro on five human cancer cell lines.

Results: Results obtained from the plants screened indicate that 18 plant extracts of folk medicine exhibited promising cytotoxic activity against human carcinoma cell lines. Erythrophleum suaveolens (Guill. & Perr.) Brenan was found to demonstrate potent anti-cancer activity in this study exhibiting IC(50) = 0.2-1.3 μg/ml.

Conclusions: Based on the significantly potent activity of some plants extracts reported here, further studies aimed at mechanism elucidation and bio-guided isolation of active anticancer compounds is currently underway.

Figure 1

Time and dose response of Erythrophleum suaveolens at 0.5 μg/ml and 1 μg/ml on cell proliferation of MCF-7 and BT-549 breast cancer cell lines. Cells were plated at 10^4 cells per well in a 96-well plates and treated for 24, 48 and 72 hr. Values are presented as means (n = 3) ± S.D. *Statistical difference (p < 0.05).

Figure 2

Microscopic images of Erythrophleum suaveolens-treated and untreated cells. (A) DMSO treated BT549 cells after 24 h (top left panel) (B) Detachment from culture plate (BT549) after 24 h exposure to Erythrophleum suaveolens at its IC₅₀ value (0.55 μg/ml), (top right panel) (C) DMSO treated BT549 cells after 48 h (bottom left panel) (D) Cytostatic effects after 48 h exposure to Erythrophleum suaveolens at its IC50 value (0.55 μg/ml), (right panel). All images are magnified at 40×. Images shown are representative of at least five such fields of view per sample and three replicates.