Abstract

ANTI TUMOR ACTIVITY OF TWO SPECIES OF MULBERRY AGAINST EAT CELL LINES IN MICE

Aditya Rao S.J, C.K Ramesh*, Riaz Mahmood, Jamuna K.S and Prabhakar B.T

Abstract

Mulberry is the most medicinally important plant which belongs to genera Morus. The present study is contemplated to investigate the medicinal value in terms of antitumor activity in two different species of Mulberry viz. Morus alba and Morus laevigata. Antitumor activity of methanolic extracts at 200 and 300mg/kg bw of M. alba and M. laevigata were evaluated against Ehrlich ascites tumor (EAT) in mice. Acute toxicity studies were performed initially in order to ascertain the safety of methanolic extracts. After 24h of tumor inoculation, the extract was administered daily for 14 d. After administration of the last dose followed by 18h fasting, mice were sacrificed for observation of antitumor activity. The methanolic extracts of M. alba and M. laevigata showed decrease in tumor volume, packed cell volume and viable cell count and increase in mean survival time thereby increasing life span of EAT bearing mice. The results revealed that methanolic extracts of M. alba and M. laevigata bears potent antitumor activity which can be inferred from the increased life span of EAT bearing mice. In comparison, M. laevigata exhibited prominent activity than M. alba for the parameters under study.

Keywords: Mulberry, antitumor activity, EAT cell lines.