In Vitro Cytotoxic Activity against Breast, Cervical, and Ovarian Cancer Cells and Flavonoid Content of Plant Ingredients Used in a Selected Thai Traditional Cancer Remedy: Correlation and Hierarchical Cluster Analysis

This study aimed to investigate in vitro cytotoxic activity of selected plant ingredients from a traditional Thai remedy for the treatment of cancer patients against cancer cells occurring in women such as MCF-7 (breast cancer), SKOV3 (ovarian cancer), and HeLa (cervical cancer) cell lines. The plants and the remedy were macerated with 95% ethanol and boiled in water. Cytotoxic activity of the extracts was analyzed by SRB assay. Total flavonoid contents of the extracts were determined and their correlation with cytotoxic activity was evaluated. The hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) was used to classify the extracts by their cytotoxic characteristics. A total of 66.7% of the plants was active against the tested cancer cell lines. Among the 44 plants in the remedy used for cancer treatment, nine plants that are also used in Thai cuisine exerted significant cytotoxicity against tested cancer cell lines. Eleven plants in the remedy were active against at least one of the tested cancer cell lines. All extracts were grouped into three groups and illustrated as heat map and hierarchical dendrogram. Total flavonoid content showed weak or no correlation with cytotoxic activity. A. dahurica, F. albopurpurea, and T. indica selectively exerted potent cytotoxic activity against MCF-7 with SI value more than 6. A. galanga, P. amarus, L. striatum, H. indicum, and F. vulgare exerted moderate cytotoxicity to all tested cell with low toxicity to normal cells. The correlation and HCA performed in this study provided an alternative way to investigate biological activities of plant ingredients in polyherbal traditional remedies.