Abstract

IN VITRO CYTOTOXIC ACTIVITY AND PRELIMINARY PHYTOCHEMICAL ANALYSIS OF THE CRUDE EXTRACTS OF ELEUTHERINE BULBOSA (MILLER), URBAN

Rani V. S.*

Abstract

Eleutherine bulbosa (Miller) Urban is an exotic plant with known medicinal uses. It is a tropical American plant, now naturalized in Asia. In Kerala and Southern parts of Tamil Nadu, the underground bulb of the plant is known by the local names, ‘Vizhanarayani’ or ‘Neerotikizhangu.’ The present study focuses on the in vitro cytotoxic activity of crude bulb extracts against Dalton’s Lymphoma Ascitic (DLA) tumour cell lines, using Tryphan blue exclusion method. Among the different crude extracts, only the crude hexane and ethyl acetate extracts showed potent cytotoxic activities towards DLA tumour cell lines. The chloroform and methanol extracts did not show any cytotoxicity to DLA tumour cell lines. The LC50 value of crude hexane extract was 67.97μg/mL. The crude ethyl acetate extract showed LC50 value at a concentration of 41.02μg/mL. At a higher concentration (100μg/mL), the ethyl acetate extract showed a much more cytotoxic activity (80% cell death) compared to the hexane extract (64% cell death).

Keywords: Eleutherine bulbosa, DLA tumour cell line, quinones, cytotoxicity, Tryphan blue.