In-vitro evaluation of antifungal and anticancer properties of tagetes erecta petal extract

Abstract

Tagetes erecta, also known as African marigold has numerous medicinal values. With the rising need to explore better antifungal, anticancer agents in therapeutics, we have done this study to evaluate the antifungal and anticancer properties of Tagetes erecta petal extract. Antifungal activity against was evaluated against Candida albicans, Aspergillus Niger, Aspergillus flavus, and Penicillium crysogenum fungal strains in disc diffusion method using Amphotericin-B, fluconazole as positive controls. Breast cancer line (MCF-7) was used to study the anticancer property of ethanolic petal extract using cytotoxicity assay, in which 5-fluorouracil was used as control. Compared to standard antifungal agents, T.erectapetal extract displayed good efficacy in increasing the diameter of zone of inhibition with disc diffusion method. In cytotoxicity assay, IC50 value was observed to be at concentration of 125µg/ml. This study demonstrated that the petal extract of Tagetes erecta could be a valuable lead, which has the potential to be explored for its use against fungal infection, and breast carcinoma in the upcoming years by the scientific fraternity.