Abstract

Natural products are the source of numerous therapeutic agents. Recent progress in the discovery of drugs from natural products has resulted in development of compounds for use in cancer treatment. Results from this study demonstrated that methanolic extracts of persimmon calyx (PCE) have cytotoxic effects in human cancer cells. Through MTT reduction assay, lactate dehydrogenase release assay, morphological assay, and colony formation assay, highly cytotoxic effects were demonstrated in human cancer cells treated with various concentrations of PCE. As expected, PCE inhibited growth of HT-29 cells in a dose-dependent manner. In particular, 500 µg/ml of PCE showed 31.1% inhibition against HT-29 cells. Interestingly, characteristics of apoptosis, including chromatin condensation and sharking, were shown to occur in HT-29 cells 24 h after treatment with 500 µg/ml of PCE. In addition, PCE also showed cytotoxic activity against HeLa and PANC-1 cells, as well as HT-29 cells. These results indicate that PCE contains bioactive materials and that it is a potential candidate for use as a chemotherapeutic agent against human cancer cells.

Key words: Natural products, persimmon calyx, cytotoxic effects, cancer cells, apoptosis.