Antioxidant and cytotoxic effects of hexane extract of Morinda pubescens leaves in human liver cancer cell line

Objective:To evaluate the antioxidant and cytotoxic effects of hexane extract of Morinda pubescens leaves and to find the primary bioactive compound responsible for antioxidant and cytotoxic activities.Methods:The individual compounds were isolated using column chromatography and were characterized by spectroscopic techniques.The antioxidant activity was evaluated for all individual isolated compounds by DPPH method using L-Ascorbic acid as standard and cytotoxicity was assessed for the extract and the hyoscyamine by MTT assay, caspase test and RT-PCR study.Results:The antioxidant activity of the isolated compounds and the extract increased as the concentration increased.One of the isolated compound hyoscyamine showed the high antioxidant activity.The extract and the hyoscyamine dose-dependently decreased the cell viability in HepG2 cells.Hyoscyamine induced caspase-3 mediated apoptosis. Up regulation of p53 gene expression provides cue for apoptotic activity of hyoscyamine. Conclusions:The results indicate that hexane extract possessed potent antioxidant and cytotoxic activity and hyoscyamine is the principal bioactive compound in hexane extract.