title: Growth inhibitory activities of crude extracts obtained from herbal plants in the Ryukyu Islands on several human colon carcinoma cell lines.
abstract: There is increasing interest in the use of herbs for the treatment of human diseases including cancer. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine whether crude extracts obtained from 44 herbal plants in the Ryukyu Islands might contain components capable of inhibiting the growth of a variety of human colon carcinoma cell lines. Leaves, roots and other parts of the plants were extracted with chloroform, and the crude extracts were dissolved in dimethylsulfoxide and used for the experiments. Extracts of Hemerocallis fulva, Ipomoea batatas, Curcuma longa, and Nasturium officinale caused marked dose-dependent growth inhibition, with IC(50) values in the range of 10-80 mug/ml. With the HCT116 cell line, the extracts of Hemerocallis fulva and Ipomoea batatas induced G1 cell cycle arrest after 48 h of treatment. In addition, we found that extracts of Curcuma longa, and Nasturium officinale induced apoptosis in these cells after 48 h of treatment. The present studies are the first systematic examination of the growth inhibitory effects of crude extracts obtained from herbal plants in the Ryukyu Islands. The findings provide evidence that several plants in the Ryukyu Islands contain components that may have anticancer activity.
authors.affiliation: Tumor Pathology, University of the Ryukyus Faculty of Medicine, 207 Uehara Nishihara-cho, Okinawa 903-0215, Japan. k038703@eve.u-ryukyu.ac.jp
authors.forename: Tatsuya
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kaneshiro
authors.forename: Masumi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Suzui
authors.forename: Reika
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Takamatsu
authors.forename: Akira
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Murakami
authors.forename: Hajime
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ohigashi
authors.forename: Tetsuya
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Fujino
authors.forename: Naoki
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Yoshimi
mesh_terms: D002277:Carcinoma / Q000473:pathology*; D049109:Cell Proliferation / Q000187:drug effects*; D003110:Colonic Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D029001:Herbal Medicine; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D010936:Plant Extracts / Q000494:pharmacology*; D014407:Tumor Cells, Cultured
chemical_list: D010936:Plant Extracts