African Journal of Traditional, Complementary and Alternative Medicines African Ethnomedicines Network ISSN: 0189-6016 Vol. 4, Num. 4, 2007, pp. 529 - 531

African Journal of Traditional, Complimentary and Alternative Medicines, Vol.4, No. 4, 2007, pg. 529 - 531

Short Communication

SCREENING OF TRADITIONALLY USED ENDEMIC SOQOTRAEN PLANTS FOR CYTOTO-XIC ACTIVITY

¹Department of Pharmacognosy, ¹Faculty of pharmacy, Sana'a University, ²Department ofPharmacognosy and Medicinal Chemistry Faculty of Medicine and Heath Science, Aden University³Department of Pharmaceutical Biology, Institute of Pharmacy, Ernst-Moritz-Arndt-University, Greifswald, Friedrich-LudwigJahn-Str. 17, D-17487 Greifswald, Germany
E-mail address:Alinasser57@yahoo.com

Code Number: tc07070

Thirty extracts obtained from 10 endemic plant species belonging to 8 plant families used in the traditional medicine in Socotra have been tested for cytotoxic activity against FL-cells. Extracts of Eureiandra balfourii and Commiphora ornifolia showed the strongest activity against FL-cells with IC50 < 10 µg/ml and 39.3 µg/ml respectively.

Key words: Cytotoxicity, Soqotra, Fl-cells

Experts estimate that hundred of families of plants, occur in the island Soqotra. More than 800 plant species have been recorded to grow on the Island, of which 307 species are considered to be endemic (Miller and Morris, 2004). Soqotra represents a precious natural treasure of new pharmacologically active compounds for pharmaceutical industry, however, biological activities of Socotraen plants have not been thoroughly investigated (Ali and Lindequist 2005; Mothana and Lindequist 2005; Mothana et al 2006; Ali et al unpublished). This work reports the first attempt to study the cytotoxic activity of medicinal plants of the island Soqotra.

10 plants were collected from different parts in the island Soqotra (Table1) in March 2005 were authenticated at the Botany department, Faculty of Science, Aden University, Yemen; Voucher specimens of the plant material were deposited in Pharmacognosy Unit, Aden University. Air-dried and ground plant material (10 g) was extracted at room temperature successively with chloroform (100 ml x 4), MeOH (100 ml x 4) and distilled H2O (100 ml x 4). The extracts were filtered and evaporated to dryness under reduced pressure at 40 °C; the residues obtained were stored in refrigerator until used.

The cytotoxicity was measured by the neutral red uptake assay (Lindl and Bauer, 1989) using FL-cells, a human amniotic epithelial cell line (Hilgenfeld et al., 1979). Only living cells are able to manage the active uptake of neutral red. FL-cells were cultivated in a 96 well micro titer plate (10⁵ cells/ml EAGLE-MEM, Sifin, Berlin, D, 150 µl/well) at 37^o C in a humidified 5 % carbon dioxide atmosphere. After 24 h, 50 µl of the extract solution was added. After a further incubation of 72 h, cells were washed 3 times with phosphate buffered saline (PBS) solution. 100-µl neutral red solution (SERVA, 0.3 % in EAGLE-MEM) were added per well. The cells were then incubated for 3 h at 37^o C, followed by another three times washing with PBS. 100 µl of a solution of acetic acid (1 %, v/v) and ethanol (50 %, v/v) in distilled water were added. After shaking for 15 min the optical density was measured at 540 nm with an ELISA-Reader-HT II (Anthos Labtec Instruments Salzburg, A). The mean of four measurements for each concentration was determined (n=4). IC50 values (concentration that caused a 50% inhibition of growth compared with control) were calculated with help of micro cal. Origin program.

The results are shown in Table 1. Only four chloroform extracts exhibited moderate to marked toxicity against FL-cell lines. Eureiandra balfourii extract with highest activity of IC50 < 10 µg/ml is comparable with the activity of the reference compound Etoposid with IC50 of ( 9.1µg/ml). Commiphora ornifolia bark and Limonium sokotranum leaves showed a high to moderate inhibition of FL-cells with IC50 of 39.3 µg/ml and 136.3 µg/ml respectively. These results supported the previous reports regarding the cytotoxic activities of various species of the genus Commiphora, and the genus Limonium on different cell lines (Habtemariam, 2003; Zhu et al 2001; Kandil, et al 2000). The presence of triterpenes in the genus Acridocarpus may be involved in the cytotoxic activity (Shugeng Cao et al 2004). The results obtained in the course of this investigation are in agreement to a certain degree with the ethnomedical information. The traditional use of Limonium as antifungal agent may be due to the cytotoxic effect. It can also be mentioned that the lipophilic compounds (CHCl3 - extracts) are more responsible for the cytotoxic activity in comparison to the hydrophilic ones.

Tab.1: cytotoxic activity of the extracts from 10 endemic Soqotraen plant species used in traditional medicine

Most of the ethnomedical information has been taken from (Miller and, Morris, 2004) a : aqueous,
b: methanolic, and c: chloroform extract

1. Ali Awadh, A.N and Lindequist, U (2005) Biological investigation of different extracts from Dentrosicycous socotranus Book of abstracts of 53^rd annual congress organized by Society of medicinal plants, Florence , Italy 21^st -25^th p. 179.
2. Habtemariam, S. (2003). Cytotoxic and cytostatic activity of erlangerins from Commiphora erlangeriana. Toxicon.1(6):723-727,
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5. Lindle, T. and Bauer, J. (1989). Zell und Gewebekultur. Gustav-Fisher-Verlag, Jena, Berlin, p 181
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9. Shugeng Cao, Rebecca Clare Guza, James S. Miller, Rabodo Andriantsiferana, Vincent E. Rasamison, and David G. I. Rain (2004). Cytotoxic Triterpenoids from Acridocarpus vivy from the Madagascar Rain J. Nat. Prod., 67: 986-989, 2004
10. Zhu, N., Kikuzaki, H., Sheng, S., Sang, S., Rafi, M. M., Wang, M., Nakatani, N., DiPaola, R. S., Rosen, R. T. and Ho, C.T.(2001). Furanosesquiterpenoids of Commiphora myrrha J Nat Prod. 64(11):1460-1462.

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