Antioxidant and antiproliferative activities of n-hexane extract and its fractions from Blumea balsamifera L. leaves

Abstract

Blumea balsamifera is a plant species that has been popularly used to treat a broad spectrum of diseases. In efforts of tackling the increasing threat of cancers, B. balsamifera has been studied for its anticancer potentials. Hence, through this research, we aimed to evaluate the antioxidant and antiproliferative activities of n-hexane extract from B. balsamifera L. leaves along with its fractionation products. After the n-hexane extract has been obtained, the sample was column chromatographed using gradient elution with n-hexane:ethyl acetate solvent. All the isolation protocols produced 1 n-hexane extract and 10 different fractions (fractions 1-10). Antioxidant and antiproliferative effects of the samples were assessed based on 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl and brine shrimp lethality test assay, respectively. None of the samples have a strong antioxidant level because all samples yielded IC₅₀ of more than 100 ppm - the best of them was fraction 8 with IC₅₀ = 113.716 ppm. On contrary, most of the samples were observed to have a potent antiproliferative effect, especially fraction 8 with LC₅₀ = 2.00 ppm. Taken altogether, fraction 8 from the n-hexane extract of B. balsamifera L. leaves is the most potential candidate for proliferative disease therapy, where further studies confirming the results are required.

Keywords: 2; 2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl; Antioxidant; antiproliferative; brine shrimp lethality test; phytomedicine.

Figure 1

TLC chromatogram of fraction 1–5 eluted with n-hexane: ethyl acetate (9:1) observed under 254-nm UV lamp (a) and with vanillin sulfate reagent (b). TLC chromatogram of fraction 5–10 eluted with n-hexane:ethyl acetate (7:3) observed under 254-nm UV lamp (c) and with vanillin sulfate reagent (d). BBH is the n-hexane extract from Blumea balsamifera L. leaves. Fraction samples were indicated by F followed the fraction number, for example, F1 represents fraction 1. TLC: Thin-layer chromatography, UV: Ultraviolet, BBH: n-hexane extract