Evaluation of In vitro Cytotoxic Activity of Ethanolic Extract of Symplocos racemosa Roxb

Abstract

Traditional plants are valuable source of novel cytotoxic agents and are still playing greater role in health care. Development of new therapeutic drugs needs assay systems to evaluate the toxicity potential of the drugs early in the drug discovery process. In vitro cell-based cytotoxicity assay is an easy and cost effective tool for hit ranking and lead optimization at the early stage of drug discovery. The present study is intended to investigate the in vitro cytotoxic study of the bark of Symplocos racemosa Roxb (Family: Symplocaceae). The Ethanolic Extract of Symplocos racemosa (EESR) revealed the presence of carbohydrates, glycosides, alkaloids, terpenoids and phenolic compounds. In pharmacological screening the cytotoxic activity of EESR using 3 human cancer cell lines [i.e. Breast Cancer (MCF7), Colon Cancer (HT29), Liver Cancer (HepG2)] were evaluated with MTT assay method. The result of EESR showed potent cytotoxic effect on HT29 cell line, moderate in MCF7 cell line and less cytotoxic effect on the HepG2 cell line.