Anticancer activity of sub-fractions of chloroform extracts of Nepeta deflersianaon on human breast and lung cancer cells: An in vitro cytotoxicity assessment

Cancer is one of the major causes of death in developed countries. The plant derived natural products have received considerable attention in recent years due to their diverse pharmacological properties including anti-cancer effects. Nepeta deflersiana, used in the folk medicine as antiseptic, carminative, antimicrobial, antioxidant, and for treating rheumatic disorders. However, anticancer activity of N. deflersiana plant extracts has not been explored so far. Therefore, the present study was aimed to investigate the anticancer activities of various sub-fractions of chloroform extracts of N. deflersiana against human breast cancer cells (MCF-7) and human lung cancer cells (A-549). The MTT and NRU assays, and cellular morphological alterations using phase contrast light microscope were studied. Cells were exposed with 10 to 1000 µg/ml of sub-fractions of N. deflersiana for 24h. Results showed that selected sub-fractions of the chloroform extract significantly reduced the cell viability of MCF-7 and A-549 cells, and altered the cellular morphology in a concentration dependent manner. Most of the cells at higher concentrations of sub-fractions loss their typical morphology of MCF-7 and A-549 cells, reduced adhesion capacity, become smaller in size, and appeared as rounded bodies. Among the sub-fractions, ND-10 fraction, showed relatively higher cytotoxicity as compared to other fractions whereas, ND-1 did not cause any cytotoxicity even at higher concentrations. The A-549 cells were more sensitive to growth inhibition by all the extracts as compared to the MCF-7 cells. The present study provides preliminary screening of anticancer activities of chloroform sub-fractions of N. deflersiana. However, for the establishment of N. deflersiana extacts as potential therapeutic anticancer agent some other mechanism based studies are in process.