Research Article
Evaluating Medicinal Plants for Anticancer Activity
Figure 2
Effect of whole plant extracts 5, 10, and 11 is time-dependent and specific. (a)-(b) Effect of whole plant extracts is time dependent. Plant extracts 5 and 11 were added at two different concentrations (1.5 mg/mL and 0.75 mg/mL) to Hec1A cells for various incubations periods and cell viability assays were performed as described in Materials and Methods. Results are expressed as percentage of death caused by each plant extract as compared to control cells (treated with DMSO/PBS at the same concentration as the plant extracts). Each column represents one representative out of 2–4 independent experiments performed. (c) Effect of whole plant extracts is specific to tumor cells. Whole plant extracts 5, 10, and 11 were added to human primary lymphocytes from healthy donors (obtained from Blood Bank-Hadassah Medical Center and used on an individual basis; 105 cells/100 μL) at 1.5 mg/mL for 72 h, after which cell viability was determined as described in Materials and Methods. Results are expressed as percentage of death caused by each plant extract, as compared to control cells (treated with DMSO/PBS at the same concentration as the plant extracts). The numbers in parentheses () are the number of individuals whose lymphocytes were tested with the three plant extracts. Each column represents the mean ± standard deviation of 2 to 3 independent experiments. (d)-(e) Primary cultures were established from biopsies of two different cancer patients (colon carcinoma and breast cancer patients) and plant extracts 5, 10, and 11 were added to the cell cultures (105 cells/100 μL; 1.5 mg/mL) for different incubation periods and cell viability assays were performed as described in Materials and Methods.
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