Antioxidant and Anticancer Effects of Malva verticillata Methanolic Extract

Abstract

Objectives: Malva verticillata (M. verticillata), growing in North Cyprus, is an edible plant known as "mallow" in public. Current literature does not contain any data about the anticancer and antioxidant activities of the M. verticillata plant grows in Northern Cyprus. Materials and Methods: In this study, M. verticillata methanolic extract was used to investigate the in vitro antioxidant and anticancer effects of the M. verticillata plant. The antioxidant potential of the Malva extract was determined using the α-diphenyl-p-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) free radical scavenging method, the total phenolic content (TPC) test, and the total flavonoid content (TFC) test. Besides, 3-(4,5-Dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-Diphenyltetrazolium Bromide (MTT) assay was used to investigate the anticancer potential of M. verticillata methanolic extract on MCF-7 cells. Results: The highest antioxidant activity of M. verticillata methanolic extract was found to be 69.35 ± 3.3% at 70 mg/ml. TFC and TPC contents were calculated as 502 ± 1.8 μg/mg and 499 ± 7.5 μg/mg extract at 70 mg/ml, respectively. Evaluation of anticancer activity revealed that MCF-7 cell proliferation was significantly inhibited with increased extract concentrations of M. verticillata. Conclusion: In this study, methanolic extract of M. verticillata plant has shown to possess significant antioxidant and anticancer activity.