Abstract

The present study was undertaken to evaluate the cytotoxic activities of the crude methanol, hexane and ethyl acetate extracts of medicinal plants, Phyllanthus niruri, Phyllanthuspectinatus, Phyllanthus acidus, Phyllanthus roseus and Baccaurea motleyana. Cytotoxic activities were screened by an in vitro assay system of growth inhibition against four human cancer cell lines, namely breast cancer cell line (MCF7), epidermal carcinoma of cervix cell line (CaSki), ovarian cancer cell (SKOV3) and colon cancer cell line (HT29). Extracts which exhibited IC₅₀ value less than 20.0 μg/ml, were considered active. Crude methanol and crude ethyl acetate extracts of P. pectinatus (leaves) were the most active on SKOV3 cell with an IC₅₀ value of 4.8 ± 1.04 and 5.8 ± 0.76 μg/ml, respectively. Crude ethyl acetate extract of P. pectinatus (fruit) exhibited potent cytotoxicity with an IC₅₀ value of 18.1 ± 0.66 and 19.4 ± 0.53 μg/ml, when tested against MCF7 and CaSki cells, respectively. This study revealed that P. pectinatus may have a great potential to be exploited for the search of anticancer drug.

Key words: Cytotoxicity, Malaysia, Phyllanthaceae, Phyllanthus, Baccaurea.