In Vitro Cytotoxic Activity of Verbascum alceoides against Cervix Carcinoma Cells

Verbascum species showed various pharmacological activities including anti-inflammatory, antitussive, antiulcerogenic, immunomodulatory, antimicrobial, antimalarial, antioxidant, and anticancer activities.

The aim of this work was to evaluate cytotoxicity of different fractions of Verbascum alceoides, which belongs to this genus.

Aerial parts of this plant were collected from Doveiseh area in Kordestan province. The plant was extracted using a four-step extraction method with increasing solvent polarity (i.e., hexane, dichloromethane, chloroform-methanol [9:1], and methanol). The methanol extract was finally separated between water and butanol. Hexane, dichloromethane, chloroformmethanol, butanol, and aqueous partitions were then subjected to cytotoxicity evaluation. Showing the most potent cytotoxic effects, the butanolic partition was further fractionated by medium-performance liquid chromatography and similar eluates were pooled to prepare five final butanolic fractions, named A–E.

In vitro cytotoxicity of these fractions against human cervical epithelioid carcinoma (HeLa) and human umbilical vein endothelial cell (HUVEC) was evaluated using 3-(4,5-dimethyl-2- thiazolyl)-2,5-diphenyl-2H-tetrazolium bromide assay. Fractions D, E, and A showed a significant and dose-dependent inhibition of cell proliferation (half maximal inhibitory concentration [IC50] of 30, 39.8, and 188.6 µg/mL, respectively). According to the preliminary thin-layer chromatography analysis, these cytotoxic effects may be mainly due to presence of saponin and flavonoid compounds.

Future studies will be aimed to isolate and purify active constituents and investigate the effect of them on more different kinds of cancer cells.