Bindu A R

Cancer, a disease characterized by uncontrolled proliferation of cells that have transformed from the normal cells of the body and is one of the major causes of death in developed and developing nations. Presently available treatment method, chemotherapeutic agents, suffers from drawback of toxicity such as bone marrow suppression, alopecia and vomiting. Its not within the reach of common man. Therefore challenging task is to identify quick and novel methods which can be of therapeutic value in human cancers. Plants have a long history and important role as a source of effective anti-cancer agents. Hence in the present study, one of the traditionally used plant, M.minuta was screened for cytotoxicity. Successive solvent extraction was carried out and the petroleum ether, chloroform, ethyl acetate, alcoholic and aqueous extracts of M.minuta were prepared. Extracts were subjected to Brine shrimp lethality assay and it was observed that % mortality increased gradually with the increase in concentration of the test samples. Ethyl acetate and alcoholic extracts which showed better cytotoxicty were further screened for their cytotoxicity towards breast cancer cell lines using MTT cell viability assay. In the same, ethyl acetate extract was found to be significantly cytotoxic towards cell lines compared to that of alcoholic extract which may be due to higher amount of phenolic compounds present in them. The results obtained in this study further supported the traditional usage of the drug and the activity of drug can be attributed to major bioactive phytochemical class; poly phenolics, present in the drug.