Potent antitumor property of Allium bakhtiaricum extracts

BACKGROUND: Allium species are magnificently nutritious and are commonly used as a part of the diet in Iran. They have health enhancing benefits including anticancer properties due to the presence of numerous bioactive compounds. Herein, we investigated in vitro and in vivo anticancer properties of Allium bakhtiaricum extracts. METHODS: Anti-growth activity of different fractions was explored in vitro on different cancerous cells using MTT assay, Annexin V/PI and SA-β-gal staining, Western blotting, flowcytometric and immunofluorescence microscopic evaluations. In vivo antitumor activity was investigated in BALB/c mice bearing 4 T1 mammary carcinoma cells. RESULTS: We demonstrated that chloroformic and ethyl acetate fractions exert cytotoxic activity toward MDA-MB-231 cells, the most sensitive cell line, after 72 h of treatment with IC(50) values of 0.005 and 0.006 mg/ml, respectively. Incubation of MDA-MB-231 cells with ¼ and ½ IC(50-72h) concentrations of each fraction resulted in a significant G2/M cell cycle arrest. ¼ IC(50-72h) concentration of the chloroform fraction led to the disruption of polymerization in mitotic microtubules. Exposure of human breast cancer cells to different concentrations of the extracts at different incubation times did not induce apoptosis, autophagy or senescence. Our in vivo study revealed that administration of the chloroform extract at a dose of 1 mg/kg/day strongly suppressed mammary tumor progression and decreased the number of proliferative cells in the lung tissues indicating its anti-metastatic effect. CONCLUSION: Our findings imply that the chloroform fraction of Allium bakhtiaricum possesses the suppressive action on breast cancer through mitotic cell cycle arrest suggesting a mechanism associated with disturbing microtubule polymerization. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s12906-019-2522-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.