Cytotoxicity Evaluation of Two Species from Caesalpinia genus

Abstract

Background: One of the important effects of medicinal plants is cytotoxic effect using to treat different tumors and neoplasms. A number of Caesalpinia species have previously been investigated for their antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory & analgesic, antitumor, lowering blood pressure, immunosuppressant and antioxidant effects. Objective: Cytotoxicity evaluation of Caesalpinia gilliesii (Hook.) D.Dietr. and Caesalpinia bonduc (L.) Roxb. Method: The plants were collected from Sistan & Baluchestan region and then were identified. Brine shrimp lethality bioassay was carried out to investigate the cytotoxicity of total extracts of plants. Extracts giving LC50 values lower than 30μg/ml were considered to be cytotoxic. Chloroform fractions of methanol extract of cytotoxic plants were also subjected to brine shrimp lethality bioassay. Results: The extracts of C. gilliesii showed moderate cytotoxicity against brine shrimp (LC50 between 30 and 50μg/ml). Different parts of C. bonduc showed different cytotoxicity and the legume of this species had potent cytotoxic effect. Chloroform fraction of legume of C. bonduc showed lower cytotoxicity than methanol extract of it. Conclusion: Legume of C. bonduc showed potent cytotoxic effect and it could be potential sources for novel anticancer compounds. This study provides useful data for the elaborated cytotoxic bioassays with cancer cell lines.

Keywords

• brine shrimp lethality test
• cytotoxicity
• leguminosae
• caesalpinia gilliesii
• caesalpinia bonduc