Vol. 8, Issue 4 (2019)

Author(s):
Sajith Palakka and V Ganesan

Abstract:
Cancer is a group of diseases caused by loss of cell cycle control. Cancer is associated with abnormal uncontrolled cell growth. Cancer is caused by both external factors (tobacco, chemicals, radiation and infectious organisms) and internal factors (inherited mutations, hormones, immune conditions, and mutations that occur from metabolism).Medical plants contain numerous bioactive phytochemicals or bionutrients. Various studies carried out during the past few decades on these phytochemicals reveal their important role in preventing chronic diseases like cancer, diabetes and coronary heart disease. The MTT in vitro cell proliferation assay is one of the most widely used assays for evaluating preliminary anticancer activity of both synthetic derivatives and natural products and natural product extracts. The highly reliable, colorimetric based assay is readily performed on a wide range of cell lines which gives an indication of whole cell cytotoxicity. In the present work the MTT in vitro cell proliferation assay of ethanolic extract of Macaranga peltata was carried out on HeLa cell lines and SKMEL 28 cell lines. Ethanolic extract of the plant drug produced an cytotoxic effect on both cell lines with an IC₅₀ of 156.9 µg/ml on cervical cell lines and 256.4µg/ml on skin carcinoma cell lines.