Antioxidant and anticancer properties of solvent partitioned extracts of Phyla nodiflora L.

Abstract

We previously found that the crude extracts of Phyla nodiflora L. are capable to inhibit cancer cells. In this study, we reassessed their anticancer properties after solvent partition extraction of the methanolic extracts. We also determined their total phenolic content (TPC) and total flavonoid content (TFC). Water, ethyl acetate and methanolic extracts showed higher TPC and TFC than chloroform or hexane extracts. Most of stem extracts exhibited higher antioxidant activity than the leaf extracts except for leaf methanolic extracts. Six of the extracts showed 50% growth inhibition at the concentration of 36-80 μg/ml. Both stem and leaf ethyl acetate extracts showed profound inhibition. They also caused DNA fragmentation in MCF-7 cells, indicating the occurrence of apoptosis. Our findings demonstrated that liquid-liquid partition has successfully separated methanolic extracts into several fractions with antioxidant and anticancer properties. This will facilitate the future investigation in identifying bioactive compounds for chemotherapeutic intervention.