Comparison of Cytotoxic Activity against Gastrointestinal Cancer Cell Lines of Basella alba L. and Basella rubra L. Extracts
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Abstract
Introduction and objective: Basella alba L. and B. rubra L. (phak plang in Thai) are medicinal plants in many Asian countries, and they have been traditionally used as food and traditional medicine for treatments of constipation and peptic ulcer. This study aimed to investigate and compare cytotoxic activity against gastrointestinal cancer cell lines of B. alba and B. rubra extracts.
Methods: The extractions of B. alba and B. rubra were undertaken by maceration with 95% ethanol and then by the partition extraction method. All extracts were examined for cytotoxic activity against gastrointestinal cancer cell lines namely oral epidermoid carcinoma (KB), gastric carcinoma (KATO III), colorectal adenocarcinoma (SW480 and LS 174T), cholangiocarcinoma (KKU-M156), and hepatocellular carcinoma (Hep G2), and normal cell lines including HaCat (immortal human epidermal keratinocytes) by SRB assay.
Results: The B. alba crude extract showed higher cytotoxic activity against gastrointestinal cancer cell lines than B. rubra. The B. alba crude extract showed cytotoxic activity against KB, KATO III, SW480 and KKU-M156 cell lines with IC50 of 39.31, 33.82, 31.54, 33.79 µg/mL, respectively, while LS 174T, and Hep G2 cell lines with IC50 of 63.06 and 59.63 µg/mL. The B. alba crude extract also showed the highest selectivity index (SI) between HaCaT cell lines against cancer cell lines including KB, KATO III, SW480, and KKU-M156 with SI of 2.39, 2.78, 2.98, and 2.79, respectively. In addition, the chloroform mix ethyl acetate fraction of ethanolic extract of fresh B. alba showed good cytotoxic activity against KB, KATO III, LS 174T, KKU-M156, and HepG2 cell lines except the SW480 cell lines, that the chloroform fraction of ethanolic extract of fresh B. rubra had higher activity. Interestingly, the chloroform fraction of ethanolic extract of fresh B. rubra showed an SI value better than B. rubra.
Discussion: This research aimed to investigate and compare of cytotoxic activity against gastrointestinal cancer cell lines of B. alba and B. rubra extracts by SRB assay. The results showed that the B. alba crude extract had more potent cytotoxic activity (SI > 2) against gastrointestinal cancer cells than B. rubra and showed moderate cytotoxic activity against KB, KATO III, SW480 and KKU-M156 cell lines, as established by NCI. Further extraction found that the chloroform fraction of B. rubra crude extract had potent cytotoxic activity against KATO III, SW480, KKU-M156, and LS 174T about 3–6 times more than the B. alba crude extract.
Conclusion and recommendation: The extraction of B. rubra by maceration with 95% ethanol and fractionated with chloroform showed the best potential cytotoxic activity against gastrointestinal cancer cells. These results provide basic information about the biological activity including cytotoxic activity against gastrointestinal cancer of Basella species extracts. However, further investigations on chemical markers, in vivo pharmacological activity testing, and toxicity testing are needed for future development as a product.
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