Cytotoxic Activity of Crude Extracts as well as of Pure Components from Jatropha Species, Plants Used Extensively in African Traditional Medicine

Table 1

Percentage growth inhibition by 50% (EC₅₀: effective dose, causing 50% reduction of cell density during the 72 hrs incubation) by extracts from J. curcas roots. The following extracts were tested: hexane extract (JCRBH) and ethyl acetate extract (JCRBEA) as well as methanol extract (JCRBM). The three cells lines L5178y, PC12, and HeLa were used for the experiments.

Extracts	Tumor cell lines, inhibitory concentration EC50 (μg/mL)
	L5178y	PC12	HeLa
JCRBH	0.82 ± 0.1	5.7 ± 0.6	1.7 ± 0.1
JCRBEA	2.2 ± 0.2	>10.0	2.5 ± 0.3
JCRBM	3.7 ± 0.3	>10.0	3.1 ± 0.3