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Studies on
cytotoxicity and antitumor screening of red and white forms
of Abrus precatorius
l.
R. Sivakumar1 and C.
Alagesaboopathi2*
1Department
of Biotechnology, S.N.R. Sons College, (Autonomous),
Coimbatore – 641 006, Tamilnadu, India.
2Department
of Botany, Government Arts College (Autonomous), Salem – 636
007, Tamilnadu, India.
*Corresponding author. E-mail:
alagesaboopathi@rediffMail.com.
Accepted 29 May, 2008 |
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The cytotoxicity study with cancer cell line A-549 indicated
that the methanol insoluble fraction of crude red forms of
Abrus precatorius is toxic (CTC50 175,100
mg/ml)
in microculture tetrazolium assay and sulphorhodamine B
assays, whereas crude and fractions of the red and white
forms exhibited toxicity at still higher concentrations.
However, an antitumor screening by the short-term toxicity
study with DLA cells showed the extracts to be comparatively
less toxic.
Key words:
Abrus precatorius,
cytotoxicity, antitumor, medicinal plants. |
