Phytochemical Composition, Anti-Inflammatory and Cytotoxic Activities of Chloroform Extract of <i>Senna crotalarioides</i>Kunth

Senna crotalarioides is used in traditional medicine to treat inflammation. The aim of this work was to investigate the anti-inflammatory and cytotoxic activities and the possible mechanism of action of the chloroform extract washed with hexane of S. crotalarioides (CESC). The anti-inflammatory effect was tested on 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate (TPA)-induced ear edema in mice. The levels of TNF-α, IL-1β, IL-6 and IL-10 were determined in macrophages J774A.1 stimulated by lipopolysaccharide (LPS). The cytotoxic activity was evaluated using 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay against six human cancer cell lines: HeLa (cervical cancer), SKLU-1 and A549 (lung cancer), LNCaP (prostate cancer), SW620 (colon cancer) and MCF7 (breast cancer). The composition of the CESC was determined by GC-MS analysis, and standardized by HPLC-ELSD with ursolic acid as the phytochemical marker. CESC inhibited ear edema 61.45%. In chronic ear edema, CESC diminished the inflammation by 53.77%. CESC decreased TNF-α, IL-1β and IL-6 concentrations, and increased the concentration of IL-10. The extract showed IC50 values on HeLa, SKLU-1, A549, LNCaP, SW620 and MCF7 by 48, 21, 8.16, 6.82, 1.81, 4.06 and 12.5 μg/mL, respectively. The main components were ursolic acid, 1-octacosanol, stigmasterol, β-sitosterol, 1-triacontanol, (Z, Z) hexadec-9-enoic acid octadec-9-enyl ester. CESC might be useful for developing a phytomedicine with anti-inflammatory and cytotoxic activities.