Antiproliferative activity of longan (Dimocarpus longan Lour.) leaf extracts

Abstract

Longan (Dimocarpus longan Lour.) belongs to Sapindaceae family. We examined the antiproliferative activity of longan leaf extracts against cancer-derived cell cell lines in vitro. The tested samples were water extract, ethanol extract, n-hexane fraction, ethyl acetate fraction, and water fraction of longan leaf. Cytotoxicity test is against brine shrimps that was screened using Brine Shrimp Lethality Test. Antiproliferative activity assay on WEHI-164 cells (mouse fibrosarcoma cancer cell), THP-1 cells (human peripheral blood acute monocyte cell), and vero cells (noncancer or normal cell) that was conducted using hemocytometer with Trypan Blue Dye exclusion. The 50% lethality concentration (LC 50 ) value of water extract, ethanol extract, n-hexane fraction, ethyl acetate fraction, and water fraction were 854.64, 305.81, 446.55, 1313.44, and 1621.8 μg/ml. Ethanol extract exhibited significant cytotoxic due to the lowest LC 50 value. Ethanol extract was then used for further examination. The highest antiproliferative activity was achieved 44.93% by 600 μg/ml ethanol extract on WEHI-164 and 57.45% by 500 μg/ml ethanol extract on THP-1. It was significantly equal to doxorubicin antiproliferative activity. Ethanol extract dose had low effect to vero cells. This present study confirmed that the longan leaf ethanol extract possess marked antiproliferative activity on cancer-derived cell lines.