Antioxidative and antiproliferative activity of polygonum minus leaves extracts

Abstract

Cancer is one of the leading causes of death in the world, particularly in developing countries. Cancer prevention by dietary constituents has emerged as a novel approach to reduce the number of cancer incidence. The Polygonum minus leaves or commonly known as ‘Kesum’ in Malaysia, have been used as natural remedy in traditional medicine. The leaves of this plant have been reported to be high in antioxidants. Thus, this study was carried out to investigate the presence of phytochemicals, antioxidant effect and antiproliferative activity of P. minus leaves extracts. In the present study, ethanol and n-hexane extracts of P. minus leaves were examined for the presence of phytochemical constituents using various standard procedures. Folin-Ciocalteau’s method was used for the evaluation of total phenolic content of the extracts. The antioxidant activity of the extracts was measured using DPPH (1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl) radicals scavenging activity assay. The antiproliferative activity of the extracts was examined against colon cancer cell line (HT 29) using MTT [3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide] assay. The ethanolic extract of P. minus showed the presence of more phytoconstituents than n-hexane extract. Ethanolic extract showed higher total phenolic content (137.07 ± 29.17 mg GAE/L) and strong antioxidant effect (IC50 = 63.1 µg/ml). The n-hexane extract exerted better antiproliferative activity against colon cancer cells (IC50 = 316 µg/ml). These data shows that ethanolic extract of P. minus leaves possesses antioxidant effect and n-hexane extract demonstrated antiproliferative activity against colon cancer cells.