Evaluation Of Synergistic In Vitro Antioxidant And Anticancer Effect Of Ethanolic Extract Of Polyherbal Mixture

Abstract

Polyherbal preparations are considered advantageous in the treatment of cancer due to presence of mixture of phytoconstituents that might have synergistic effect with less side effects. Hence in the present study, polyherbal mixture comprising of Curcuma longa (turmeric), leaf of Ocimum sanctum (tulsi), root of Glycyrrhiza glabra (Licorice), dried fruit of Piper nigrum (black pepper) and dry rhizome of Zingiber officinale (dry ginger) was prepared. The ethanolic extract of this polyherbal mixture (PHM-EE) was prepared suing Soxhlet apparatus. PHM-EE showed in vitro antioxidant activities such as DPPH radical and nitric oxide radical scavenging activities in dose-dependent manner. The IC₅₀ (half-maximal inhibitory concentration) values of PHM-EE against DPPH and NO scavenging activity was found to be 16.073 µg/ml and 33.17 µg/ml, respectively. Further, PHM-EE showed anticancer activity against breast cancer cell, MCF-7. PHM-EE treatment reduced the viability of MCF-7 with IC₅₀ value of 7.8 µg/ml. The PHM-EE treatment induced apoptosis in the MCF-7 cells which was visualized as DNA fragmentation in agarose gel electrophoresis. Altogether, the polyherbal preparation showed dual functional activity such as antioxidant and anticancer activity which could be further studied for its therapeutic potential.