EVALUATION OF ANTICANCER ACTIVITY OF FLAVONOID ISOLATED FROM THE ACETONE EXTRACT OF THE AERIAL PARTS OF PHYLLANTHUS NIRURI AGAINST HUMAN LUNG CANCER CELL LINE (A549)

Abstract

Phyllanthus niruri L. (Euphorbiaceae), known as “quebra-pedra” (Portuguese for “stonebreaker”), is an herb used for kidney disorders.Whole plants have been used in traditional medicine for treatment of jaundice, asthma, hepatitis and malaria. The present  study  was  designed  to determine  the  anticancer  activity of  flavonoid isolated  from the  acetone extract  of  the  aerial part  of  P. niruri  against  human  lung cancer  cell line (A₅₄₉).MTT assay based cytotoxic activity study  against human  lung cancer cell line (A₅₄₉) was conducted  to evaluate the potent  activity of flavonoid isolated from P. niruri.TLC  and GC- MS  analysis  were  recorded to confirmthe presence  of  flavonoids  in acetone extracts.Flavonoids isolated from the acetone extract of the aerial part of P.niruri showed  cytotoxic  activity against the human lung cancer cell line (A₅₄₉) and the  inhibitory concentration at 50% growth (IC₅₀) was  found to contain IC₅₀ = 30.70±0.81µg/mL respectively. The  results  indicated  that the flavonoids isolated from the P.niruri showed cytotoxic activity which can be  effectively employed  in  anticancer  treatment.  Cytotoxic  study  suggested that  flavonoid  from the  acetone  extract  of  the  aerial  part  of  P. niruri was  found  to contain maximum inhibition of  66.6% at 7.8µg/mL concentration.