An ethnobotanical survey and in vitro cytotoxicity study of medicinal plants traditionally used in the treatment of cancers in Ugbine, Nigeria

Event Abstract Back to Event An ethnobotanical survey and in vitro cytotoxicity study of medicinal plants traditionally used in the treatment of cancers in Ugbine, Nigeria Ogochukwu N. Nwaefulu1, Josephine O. Owolabi2, Sreenivasa R. Sagineedu3, Lim C. Woei1, Nur K. Kassim1 and Johnson Stanslas1* 1 Universiti Putra Malaysia, Seri Kembangan, Malaysia 2 University of Benin, Nigeria 3 International Medical University, Malaysia Background Herbalists in Ugbine, Nigeria are known to use herbs in treatment of cancers amongst other diseases. Therefore, this research was designed to study the medicinal plants used in the treatment of cancers amongst traditional healers in the community and herb sellers, and to validate this claim scientifically. Methods A cross–sectional survey was conducted between August and September 2017 using a validated structured questionnaire. Plant specimens indicated in the recipes were collected, sent to Forestry Research Institute of Nigeria (FRIN) for identification and authentication, thereafter used for cytotoxicity study. A specimen with voucher number FHI - 111105 was deposited. Dried/powdered leaves 45 g of Petiveria alliacea (PA) was extracted with 900 ml of dichloromethane (DCM), methanol (MeOH) and DCM:MeOH (1:1) by cold maceration for 72 hours. The solvent extract was filtered and concentrated using rotary evaporator, subsequently was dried in an oven at 40oC for 3 days. 3-(4,5-Dimethythiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay was performed to assess in vitro growth inhibition of extracts against cancer cell lines (HCT-116 (colon), PC-3 (prostate), MCF-7 (breast), PANC-1 (pancreas). Cells were treated with the extracts (0.01 to 100 µg/mL) for 96 hours at 5% CO2 and 37oC. An extract was regarded to be active if it had a mean GI50 < 100 µg/mL in any of the four cell lines. Among the active extracts, GI50 < 10 µg /mL in at least one tumour cell line was classified as strong growth inhibitory effect, whereas extracts with GI50 in the range of 10-100 µg /mL were considered to have moderate growth inhibitory effect. Extracts with GI50 > 100 µg/mL were considered to have no activity. Results A total of 11 respondents were interviewed. They were mainly herb sellers (64%) and the rest were traditional healers. They were predominantly females (90.9%). Majority (63.6%) of them aged between 61-90 years, while 36.4% were between 31 – 60 years old. The level of illiteracy amongst them is high (63.6%). The tribe that predominates amongst the respondents was Yoruba (45.5%), followed by Bini (36.4), Calabar (9.1%) and others (9.1%). Majority (54.5%) of them practised African traditional religion, followed by Islam (27.3%) and Christianity (18.2%). Although majority (81.8%) of the respondents have knowledge of the disease called cancer, the treatment of this disease with herbs was only practised by 9.1% of them. The in vitro cytotoxicity test showed moderate growth inhibitory effect of DCM:MeOH extract against HCT-116 (GI50 55 ± 10.4 µg/mL), PC-3 (GI50 65 ± 5.0 µg/mL) but failed to show activity against PANC-I and MCF-7 cells. The DCM extract also showed moderate activity against PC-3 (GI50 45 ± 5.0 µg/mL). However, the MeOH extract was inactive. Conclusion PA extracts produced varying degrees of cytotoxic activities against cancer cell lines. This observation therefore supports the potential of this plant as a source of new anticancer agents. Further studies are required to identify the active constituents found in this plant. Keywords: Petiveria alliacea, Cell viability, cell growth, Cancer, MTT assay Conference: International Conference on Drug Discovery and Translational Medicine 2018 (ICDDTM '18) “Seizing Opportunities and Addressing Challenges of Precision Medicine”, Putrajaya, Malaysia, 3 Dec - 5 Feb, 2019. Presentation Type: Poster Presentation Topic: Cancer Citation: Nwaefulu ON, Owolabi JO, Sagineedu SR, Woei LC, Kassim NK and Stanslas J (2019). An ethnobotanical survey and in vitro cytotoxicity study of medicinal plants traditionally used in the treatment of cancers in Ugbine, Nigeria. Front. Pharmacol. Conference Abstract: International Conference on Drug Discovery and Translational Medicine 2018 (ICDDTM '18) “Seizing Opportunities and Addressing Challenges of Precision Medicine”. doi: 10.3389/conf.fphar.2018.63.00132 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 30 Sep 2018; Published Online: 17 Jan 2019. * Correspondence: Prof. Johnson Stanslas, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Seri Kembangan, Seri Kembangan, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia, jstanslas@yahoo.co.uk Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Ogochukwu N Nwaefulu Josephine O Owolabi Sreenivasa R Sagineedu Lim C Woei Nur K Kassim Johnson Stanslas Google Ogochukwu N Nwaefulu Josephine O Owolabi Sreenivasa R Sagineedu Lim C Woei Nur K Kassim Johnson Stanslas Google Scholar Ogochukwu N Nwaefulu Josephine O Owolabi Sreenivasa R Sagineedu Lim C Woei Nur K Kassim Johnson Stanslas PubMed Ogochukwu N Nwaefulu Josephine O Owolabi Sreenivasa R Sagineedu Lim C Woei Nur K Kassim Johnson Stanslas Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.