USE OF MOLECULAR BIOLOGY FOR STUDYING THE MODE OF ACTION OF SOME MEDICINAL PLANT EXTRACTS AS ANTICANCER AGENTS

Abstract

Medicinal plants have been used in folk medicine for thousands of years as natural products which play a role in pharmaceutical biology. Therefore, highlighting of the antioxidant and anticancer activities of Aloe vera, Sonchus oleraceus, Morus alba and Cichorium intybus were the aim of this study. Total phenol and flavonoid content were calculated. Antioxidant activity was determined by DPPH and reducing power using different concentrations. The highest effect for antioxidant activity were estimated for Morus alba. The anticancer activity for cancer cell lines was evaluated by MTT assay in MCF-7 breast cancer cell and AML leukemia cancer cells. The ethyl acetate extract of M. alba possessed the anticancer activity 78.77% at 250 µg/ml against AML cells. The methanolic extract of C. intybus had high effect against MCF-7cell line which was 88.38% at 750 µg/ml, while methanolic extract of M. alba recorded 68.68% at 250 µg/ml. Three bioactive fractions were isolated from ethanolic extract of C. intybus using TLC (F1-F3).