Cytotoxic Effects of Lagenaria siceraria Standl. Extract on Cancer Cell Lin

Background and In most cases, drugs used for chemotherapy are ineffective and have unpleasant side-effects. This has made scientists to find more effective drugs with less toxicity. Lagenaria siceraria is an important medicinal plant in the world and anti-tumoral activity of Lagenaria species has been reported in some studies. This study was designed to evaluate the anti-tumoral effect of methanolic extract isolated from Lagenaria siceraria on lung cancer cell line. Hydroalcoholic extract of Lagenaria siceraria was prepared by percolation method. Cultivated cancer cell line of lung (A549) was incubated with different concentrations (0.1, 1, 10, 100, 250, 1000, 500, and 5000 µg/ml) of the extract for 72 hours and cell growth inhibition was determined using MTT assay. Cisplatin was considered as positive control. The resulting data was analyzed using ANOVA and t-test. Results of MTT assay showed strong and dose-dependent inhibition of cancer cell growth by the extract of Lagenaria siceraria. This extract caused a significant decrease in proliferation of lung cancer cell line (IC50 = 93.094 ± 6.5 μg/ml). The results of this study suggest anti-tumoral activity of Lagenaria siceraria, however, isolation of efficient compounds of this extract and evaluation of their effects on tumor-bearing animal models are suggested.