Abstract

CYTOTOXIC ACTIVITY, ACUTE AND SUB-ACUTE TOXICITY OF METHANOLIC ROOT EXTRACT OF CORRIGIOLA TELEPHIIFOLIA POURR

*L. Doudach^{1, 2}, B. Meddah¹, L. Rouas³, Mya Faouzi¹, L. Benbacer⁴, M.Bouabdellah⁵, Z. Alhamany³, L.Chabraoui⁵, A. Elomri², and Y. Cherrah¹

Abstract

Corrigiola telephiifolia Pourr. (Caryophyllaceae) is an herbal plant commonly used in Moroccan traditional medicine for treatment of many disorders. In the present study, we investigated cytotoxic activity by an in vitro assay system of growth inhibition against a human cancer cell line, namely cervix adenocarcinoma (HeLa) and breast adenocarcinoma cells (MCF-7), the results demonstrated that cyclohexane extract show a moderate cytotoxic activity against HeLa cell lines . The acute and sub-acute toxicity of the crude methanolic extract of C. telephiifolia root parts was evaluated. For acute toxicity, a single oral administration was performed at a dose of 2000 mg/kg body weight (six females, six males mice). The study of sub-acute toxicity was evaluated by daily oral (five females, five males mice) with the extract at doses of 10, 50, 100 and 500 mg/kg/day for forty five days. No mortality or signs of toxicity were observed in the acute study.Mice were analyzed for final body and organ weights, necropsy, blood chemical and histopathological parameters. In the forty five days study in mice the extract at 10 and 50 mg/kg/day showed no toxicity, mortality, macroscopic or microscopic change of internal organs or tissues in either sexe in comparison with the control group. The bodyweight of both sexes decreased at the dose of 100, 500 mg/kg/day and clinical blood chemistry revealed slightly changes.The extracts of Corrigiola telephiifolia showed a cytotoxic activity without mortality in laboratory animals .They are good candidates for further investigations in the fields of new anticancer drugs discovery.

Keywords: Corrigiola telephiifolia, acute toxicity, sub-acute toxicity, cytotoxic activity.