title: Anti-tumor activity of Phyllanthus niruri (a medicinal plant) on chemical-induced skin carcinogenesis in mice.
abstract: Chemoprevention is an important strategy to control the process of carcinogenesis. The potential of using medicinal herbs as cancer chemopreventive nutraceuticals and functional food is promising. Thus, there is a need for exploring drugs/agents which act as chemopreventive agents. Phyllanthus niruri is a well known medicinal plant which has been used in Ayurvedic medicine as hepatoprotective, antiviral, antibacterial, analgesic, antispasmodic and antidiabetic. The present study was carried out to evaluate the anti-tumor activity of a hydro-alcoholic extract of the whole plant, in 7-9 week old male Swiss albino mice, on the two stage process of skin carcinogenesis induced by a single topical application of 7, 12-dimethylbenz (a)anthracene (100 microg/100 microl acetone) and two weeks later promoted by repeated application of croton oil (1% in acetone/three times a week) till the end of experiment (16 weeks). The oral administration of P. niruri at a dose of 1000 mg/kg/b.wt. at peri- (i.e. 7 days before and 7 days after DMBA application) and post- (i.e. starting from the croton oil application) initiational phase of papillomagenesis caused significant reduction in tumor incidence, tumor yield, tumor burden and cumulative number of papillomas as compared to carcinogen-treated controls. Furthermore, the average latent period was significantly increased in the PNE treated group. The results thus suggest that P. niruri extract exhibits significant anti-tumor activity, which supports the traditional medicinal utilization of this plant.
authors.affiliation: Radiation and Cancer Biology Laboratory, Department of Zoology, University of Rajasthan, Jaipur, India. pkgoyal2002@rediffmail.com
authors.forename: Priyanka
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Sharma
authors.forename: Jyoti
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Parmar
authors.forename: Preeti
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Verma
authors.forename: Priyanka
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Sharma
authors.forename: P K
authors.initials: PK
authors.lastname: Goyal
mesh_terms: D015127:9,10-Dimethyl-1,2-benzanthracene / Q000633:toxicity; D000287:Administration, Topical; D000818:Animals; D018890:Chemoprevention; D003436:Croton Oil / Q000633:toxicity; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D010212:Papilloma / Q000139:chemically induced / Q000517:prevention & control; D029803:Phyllanthus / Q000737:chemistry*; D008517:Phytotherapy; D010936:Plant Extracts / Q000494:pharmacology*; D012878:Skin Neoplasms / Q000139:chemically induced / Q000517:prevention & control*
chemical_list: D010936:Plant Extracts; D015127:9,10-Dimethyl-1,2-benzanthracene; D003436:Croton Oil