The antitumor effects in vitro of sesquiterpene lactones from elephantopus scaber.

Abstract

The antitumor effects of sesquiterpene lactones scabertopin and isodexyelephantopin from the whole plant of Elephantopus scaber were studied in vitro on SMMC-7721, Hela and Caco-2 cancer cell lines. In MTT assay, scabertopin and isodexyelephantopin at the dose of 1-100 μM markedly inhibited the growth of three cancer cell lines in dose- dependent manner. The IC50 value of scabertopin and isodexyelephantopin on SMMC-7721 cells after 48 h of treatment were 29.27 and 9.54 μM, resp., with their IC50 value on Hela cells of 22.19 and 25.39 μM and on Caco- 2 cells of 35.99 and 25.76 μM. The time-effect expt. also showed that isodexyelephantopin inhibited the growth of Hela cells in time-dependent manner. DNA agarose gel electrophoresis of Hela cells revealed obvious nuclear fragmentation (DNA ladder) treated with isodexyelephantopin for 48 h, which suggested the compd. could induce the apoptosis of Hela cell. [on SciFinder(R)]