Investigations On Some Folklore Medicinal Plants For Their Phytochemical And Biological Potential

Abstract

newline The present work deals with two folkloric plants i.e. aerial parts of newlineCorchorus depressus L. (Family: Tiliaceae) and aerial parts of Alysicarpus newlinemonilifer L.(DC.) (Family: Fabaceae). The aerial parts of the plant C. depressus newlinewere collected from Adipur region of Kutch district and that of A. monilifer were newlinecollected from New Vallabh Vidyanagar region of Anand. These plants are newlineindicated as anti-tumor agents in ethnobotany, but this has not been proved newlinepharmacologically. So it was thought worthwhile to carry out investigations for the newlinesame. Aim: Investigations on bioactive constituents from cytotoxic fractions newlineprepared from aerial parts of C. depressus and aerial parts of A. monilifer. newlineMethods: A bioactivity guided fractionation approach was adopted. The direct newlinemethanolic extracts of both the plants, CD-1 (from C. depressus) and AM-1 (from newlineA. monilifer), were tested on breast cancer cell lines (MCF-7 and MDA MB-231) newlineand liver cancer cell lines (HepG2 and HLE) in- vitro. The in vitro cytotoxic newlineactivity was determined using two colorimetric assays; namely the MTT assay newlineand NRU assay, in terms of percentage inhibitions. As CD-1 and AM-1showed newlinepotential cytotoxic activity, the fractions from those extracts were tested, newlineindividually, for cytotoxic activity on four cancer cell lines (MCF-7, MDA-MB-231, newlineHepG2 and HLE cell lines). The fractions tested were: newline· Hexane (CD-2), Chloroform (CD-4), Ethyl acetate (CD-5), water (CD-6) newlineand the alkaloidal fraction (CD-3) of Direct methanolic extract (CD-1) of C. newlinedepressus; newline· Chloroform (AM-2), Hexane (AM-3), Ethyl acetate (AM-4) and Methanol newline(AM-5) of Direct methanolic extract (AM-1) of A. monilifer newlinePreliminary screening of the above fractions against four cancer cell lines newlinerevealed the most potent cytotoxic fraction for both the medicinal plants. A total newlineof eight phytoconstituents were isolated (four from each plant) from the fractions, newlineusing column chromatography. The purity of compounds was assessed through newlinemelting point, TLC and HPLC chromatograms. Isolated consti