In vitro Screening of the Leaf Extracts from Gardenia ternifolia (Forest Gardenia) for their Anticancer Activity

Aim: The aim of the study is to evaluate the cytotoxicity of the crude extracts of Gardenia ternifolia (Oliv.) in human prostate cancer (PC-3) and breast cancer (MCF-7) cell lines.

Study Design: Successive extractions of Gardenia ternifolia leaves were performed, using petroleum ether 60-80ºC, chloroform, ethyl acetate, methanol and methanol 80%. The cytotoxicity of these extracts on human breast cancer (MCF-7), prostate cancer (PC-3), and non-cancerous rat skeletal muscle (L6) cell lines were analyzed by 3-(4,5-Dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-Diphenyltetrazolium Bromide (MTT) assay.

Place and Duration of Study: This work was performed at PSG College of Pharmacy, Coimbatore, India, from 01 September 2014 to 30 December 2014.

Methodology: The powdered leaves of Gardenia ternifolia were dried and kept at room temperature (27ºC) and then extracted by maceration. Successive extractions were followed starting with petroleum ether 60-80ºC, chloroform, ethyl acetate, methanol and methanol 80%. Furthermore, the extracts were concentrated under reduced pressure and dried at room temperature. Anti-cancer activities of the various extracts were assayed by MTT assay on MCF-7, PC-3, and L6 cell lines.

Results: For MCF-7 cell lines, the total extracts showed moderate CC50 (50% cytotoxic concentration) of respectively 21.62 µg/mL and 45.44 µg/mL for chloroform and ethyl acetate extracts. The CC50 of petroleum ether 60-80ºC, methanol and methanol 80% crude extracts were found to be more than 100 µg/ml. For PC-3 cell lines, the CC50 of the extracts were of 9.66 µg/ml, 24.47 µg/ml and 92.10 µg/ml, respectively for chloroform, ethyl acetate and methanol extracts. The CC50 of the crude extracts of petroleum ether 60-80ºC and methanol 80% were more than 100 µg/ml.

Conclusion: The chloroform extract of Gardenia ternifolia showed better cytotoxicity effect in PC-3 than MCF-7 cell lines, comparatively to the other extracts. This could be due to the different secondary metabolites extracted with the chloroform solvent. Therefore, it could be suggested that Gardenia ternifolia could be developed as a possible therapeutic agent against human prostate cancer.