Mitochondrial Activity and Cell Damage after Application of Acmella oleracea Leaf Extract

Abstract

Acmella oleracea is a plant species belonging to the Asteraceae family, native to the Amazon that has broad therapeutic and culinary use. Several secondary metabolites and your bioactive component spilanthol have been associated with its medicinal effects. This study aims to evaluate the leaf extract of A. oleracea for therapeutic purposes. When applied to both cell cultures HEp-2 neoplastic cells and L929 fibroblast cells, the increasing extract concentrations yielded a significant reduction in cell viability using ANOVA test with Significance of P ≤ 0.05 (*), Very Significant P ≤ 0.01 (***) and Extremely Significant P ≤ 0.001 (****), causing visible damage to cytoskeleton actin filaments. The cytotoxicity of the A. oleracea leaf extract may be associated with other components, including flavonoids. Thus, A. oleracea has a great cytotoxic activity on tumoral cells and can be considered for future antitumor therapy. However, because of its toxicity to non-tumoral cells, it is essential to evaluate the efficacy of each extract sub-fraction compound, alerting the population for the traditional use of the plant that can cause damage for the consumer.