Cytotoxicity activities of Dicranopteris linearis extracts and fractions

Cancer is currently a second leading cause of death in the world [1]. Therefore the newer anticancer drugs from natural product are needed to replace the synthetic drug from the chemical compound. Based on the traditional medicinal value, Dicranopteris linearis (Burm.f.) Underw. from the Gleicheniaceae family was shown to possess pharmacological potential such as cytotoxic activity. For initial investigations, the dried leaves of D. linearis were extracted with aqueous, chloroform and methanol. The extracts were tested against HL 60 (acute promyelocytic leukemia cell lines) and WRL 68 (normal liver cell line) using MTT assays. The methanol extract (Table 1) showed the promising cytotoxic activity against HL 60 (IC50=7.9µg/ml). The methanol extract was further partitioned in sequence with n-hexane, chloroform and methanol to determine which extract contain the most active constituents. The result showed the methanol fraction to be significantly active against HL 60 with the value IC50=12.88µg/ml and non toxic to normal cell. The methanol fraction was then subjected to the bioassay-guided fractionation. The fractionation by vacuum liquid chromatography (VLC) gave eleven fractions labeled as F1, F2, F3, F4, F5, F6, F7, F8, F9, F10 and F11. The fraction F7 (Table 2) demonstrated cytotoxic activity with the best value (IC50=25.12µg/ml). In addition, it was also found to be non-toxic against normal cell. Further work involving the isolation of active compounds in this potent ferns would be necessary to elucidate the actual source of the observed bioactivities.