ANTICANCER ACTIVITY OF THE CRUDE EXTRACTS AND AN ISOLATE (Beta-SITOSTEROL) FROM THE LEAF OF ANNONA MURICATA

Nwaehujor Idorenyin Ugochi*, Olatunji Gabriel Ademola, Das Achana Moni

Biochemistry and Chemistry Department, Nigerian Stored Products Research Institute, P.M.B. 1489, Ilorin, Kwara State, Nigeria.

ABSTRACT

Surgical treatment, radiation therapy and chemotherapy which have been used for the treatment of cancers generally ends up with adverse side effects due to toxicity on human cells. The use of Natural healthy alternatives is now encouraged. Current study was to conduct in-vitro anticancer Studies of the ethanol extract and ethyl acetate extract of Annona muricata and β-sitosterol isolated from the ethanol extract. Annona muricata leaf was dried at ambient temperature and extracted using cold extraction method with increasing polarity of solvents. The solvents used were hexane, ethyl acetate and ethanol. Isolation of β-sitosterol from ethanol extract was carried out using column chromatography. The cytotoxicity of ethanol extract, ethyl acetate extract and β-sitosterol was evaluated in-vitro on human cervical cancer (hela) cell line. All the samples tested showed different level of cytotoxicity on human cervical cancer cell line. Ethyl acetate extract had highest cytotoxic effect (LC50 = 0.058 μg/mL). The LC50 of ethanol extract was 0.14 μg/mL. The activities of the extracts were higher than the reference standards; doxorubicine (LC50 = 1.725 μg/mL) and docetaxal (LC50 = 28.40 μg/mL). Β-sitosterol showed low cytotoxicity (LC50 = 203.56 μg/mL) on hela cell line. Annona muricata leaf extracts is a promising anticancer agent.

Keywords:

Anticancer, Annona, muricata, cytotoxicity, Beta- sitosterol