The extracts of Gentiana lutea with potential cytotoxic effects on human carcinoma cell lines: a preliminary study

Abstract

Abstract Introduction Cancer is a disease with increasing incidence and is the second cause of death worldwide. Phytotherapy is based on the use of plants to treat diseases and is important in the development of new therapeutic strategies such as anti-cancer drugs. The aim of this work was to perform a study on the effect of aqueous and ethanolic extracts of Gentiana lutea in two human cancer cell lines, human cervical cancer (HeLa) and breast adenocarcinoma (MCF-7). Methods The aqueous and ethanolic extracts were prepared both with MEM culture medium at different concentrations as follow: 31.25\u2009μg/ml, 62.5\u2009μg/ml, 125\u2009μg/ml, 250\u2009μg/ml and 500\u2009μg/ml. Cells were plated in 96-multiwell culture plates at a density of 104 and 105 cells/well for each extract concentration. Untreated cancer cells acted as a control group. Results The results exhibited a hyperbolic relationship between growth inhibition for HeLa /and MCF-7 cell lines and ethanol extract concentration revealed the highest inhibition observed at 500\u2009μg/ml for both cell concentrations. MCF-7 cell line was inhibited when exposed to the ethanol extract of Gentiana lutea (highest growth inhibition of 25%). Aqueous plant extracts exhibited a different behavior since there was an increase (15–20%) in cell growth at low extract concentrations while a cell growth inhibition (15–25%) was only observed at the highest extract concentration. Conclusion The present results strongly suggest growth inhibition of carcinoma cell lines by the hyperbolic relationship for both plant extracts and it will require a detailed future research to understand its molecular mechanism.