title: In vitro anticancer activity of aqueous extracts and ethanol extracts of fifteen traditional Chinese medicines on human digestive tumor cell lines.
abstract: The purpose of this study was to investigate the anticancer activity of 15 traditional Chinese medicines which are usually used for tumor patients in China. The MTT (methylthiazolyldiphenyl-tetrazolium bromide) method was applied to compare the antitumoral activity of the aqueous crude extracts and the ethanol crude extracts of these drugs on six human digestive tumor cell lines: human liver carcinoma cell lines (HepG-2 and SMMC-7721), human gastric cancer cell line (BGC-823), human colon adenocarcinoma cell lines (LoVo and SW-116) and esophagus adenocarcinoma cell line (CaEs-17). Most ethanol extracts demonstrated a more powerful inhibitory effect than aqueous extracts. Their IC50 values were between 10 microg/mL and 500 microg/mL. Among these drugs, Paris polyphylla Smith showed a predominant inhibitory effect on all the cell lines with IC50 values ranging from 10 microg/mL to 30 microg/mL. The findings in this study suggested that traditional Chinese medicines, especially Paris polyphylla Smith, might have potential anticancer activity on digestive cancer and its mechanism needs further study.
authors.affiliation: Department of Oncology, Affiliated Drum Tower Hospital, Medical School of Nanjing University and Clinical Cancer Institute of Nanjing University, Nanjing, 210008, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.forename: Bao-Rui
authors.initials: BR
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Wen-Jing
authors.initials: WJ
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.forename: Li-Xia
authors.initials: LX
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.forename: Xiao-Ping
authors.initials: XP
authors.lastname: Qian
mesh_terms: D000230:Adenocarcinoma / Q000188:drug therapy; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D049109:Cell Proliferation / Q000187:drug effects*; D004067:Digestive System Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy; D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal / Q000494:pharmacology* / Q000627:therapeutic use; D006801:Humans; D020128:Inhibitory Concentration 50; D008516:Medicine, Chinese Traditional; D010946:Plants, Medicinal
chemical_list: D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal