Phytochemical screening, antioxidant and in vitro anticancer activities of Bombax buonopozense stem bark extracts

Abstract

In recent decades, extensive research has been focused on the screening and investigating the antioxidant and anticancer activities of medicinal plants extracts or isolated natural product-based drugs. Therefore, the present study aimed to evaluate the phytochemical, antioxidant and in vitro anticancer activities of Bombax buonopozense extracts. Standard methods were used for the identification of alkaloids, tannins, flavonoids, coumarins, saponins, sterol, triterpenes and reducing compounds. Free-radical–scavenging activity was measured by the 2,2’-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) free radical assay, and the cytotoxic potential was evaluated in the P815 murin lymphoblast-like mastocytoma cell line using the MTT assay. Regarding the antioxidant activity, our results showed a powerful in vitro free-radical scavenging activity of the ethanolic extract compared to the aqueous extracts, with IC50 values of 10 and 220 µg/mL, respectively. In the MTT assay, the ethanolic extract showed a moderate and dose-dependent association growth inhibition of P815 cells in a dose above of 200 µg/mL with IC50 of 74 µg/mL compared to cisplatin (IC50= 4 µg/mL). Our findings demonstrate that Bombax buonopozense ethanolic extract could be an effective antioxidant and promising antiproliferative agent.

Keywords

• bombax buonopozense
• phytochemical screening
• antioxidant activity
• cancer