Anti-cancer activity of compounds from Cassia garrettiana heartwood

Abstract

The ethanol extract of Cassia garrettiana heartwood showed marked inhibitory activity against several cancer cell lines including HT-29, HeLa, MCF-7 and KB cells. Therefore, its extract and compounds were investigated for their anticancer effect using the Sulforhodamine B (SRB) assay. The ethanol extract of C. garrettiana heartwood was separated to give five compounds which are chrysophanol (1), piceatannol (2), aloe-emodin (3), emodin (4) and cassigarol E (5). Of the tested samples, chrysophanol (1) showed the highest anti-cancer activity against KB cells (IC50 = 0.045 g/mL), aloe emodin (3) was the most active against HT-29 (IC50 = 0.29 g/mL), emodin (4) was against HeLa cells (IC50 = 0.82 g/mL), and cassigarol E (5) was active against MCF-7 (IC50 = 0.021 g/mL), whereas piceatannol (2) was inactive in all tested cell lines. This is the first report of anti-cancer effect against HT-29, HeLa, MCF-7 and KB cells of C. garrettiana heartwood.

Keywords

• anti-cancer activity
• Cassia garrettiana
• Caesalpiniaceae