Cytotoxic Activity of the
Leaf and Stem Extracts of Hibiscus rosa sinensis (Malvaceae)
against Leukaemic Cell Line (K-562)
Sangeetha Arullappan1*,
Shamsul Muhamad2 and Zubaidah Zakaria3
1Faculty of Science,
Department of Biomedical Science, Universiti Tunku Abdul
Rahman (UTAR), Jalan Universiti, Bandar Barat, 31900
Kampar, Perak, 2Herbal Medicine Research
Centre, 3Haematology Unit, Cancer Research
Centre, Institute for Medical Research, Jalan Pahang,
50588 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
*For correspondence:
Email:
sangeetha@utar.edu.my; Tel:
+60166662512; Fax: +6054661676
Received:
21 September
2012
Revised accepted:
26 June 2013
Tropical Journal of
Pharmaceutical Research, October 2013;
12(5):
743-746
http://dx.doi.org/10.4314/tjpr.v12i5.12
Abstract
Purpose: To evaluate the cytotoxic activity of Hibiscus
rosa sinensis against K-562 cancer cell line.
Methods:
The crude petroleum ether, ethyl acetate and methanol
extracts of the leaf and stem of Hibiscus rosa sinensis were prepared using cold extraction method.
The in vitro
cytotoxic activity of the extracts (20 - 100 µg/ml) was evaluated on leukaemic cancer
cell line (K-562) and Mardin-Darby kidney cell line (MDBK)
(control) using
3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-5-(3-carboxymethoxyphenyl)-2-(4-sulfophenyl)-2H-tetrazolium
(MTS) and
3-(4,5-dimethyl-2-thiazolyl)-2,5-diphenyl-2H-tetrazolium
bromide (MTT) assays, followed by morphological
detection with Hoeschst staining.
Results: The methanol leaf extracts showed
higher activity (IC50 value: 30.9 ± 1.1
µg/ml) against K-562 cells than petroleum ether and
ethyl acetate extracts which exhibited IC50
of 87.6 ± 0.91 and 57.6 ± 0.61 µg/ml (p < 0.05),
respectively. Meanwhile, stem extracts from methanol
showed IC50 of 79.80 µg/ml against K-562.
MDBK
cells (positive control) showed IC50 > 100
µg/ml for all the extracts. On treating K-562 cells with methanol leaf extract
(30 µg/ml), the former were observed to undergo
apoptosis with nuclear segmentation after 24 h
incubation. The methanol leaf extract produced cell
death on K-562 cells by apoptosis.
Conclusion: Hibiscus rosa sinensis extracts possess
potentials as effective cytotoxic agents against K-562
cells.
Keywords:
Hibiscus rosa
sinensis, Cytotoxicity, Leukaemic cancer cell, Kidney
cancer cell, Apoptosis
