Polyphenol Content, Antioxidant, Cytotoxic, and Genotoxic Activities of Bombax ceiba Flowers in Liver Cancer Cells Huh7

OBJECTIVE: Bombax ceiba (red Silk cotton tree) has great ethnopharmacological significance due to its widespread use to treat various diseases such as dysentery, inflammation, and tuberculosis. Despite decades of research, the studies on the in vitro anticancer/genotoxic activity of B. ceiba flower remains restricted. Thus, the present research explored the effect of ethanol extract from B. ceiba flowers on three human cancer cells, including lung A549 and liver HepG2 and Huh7 cell lines. METHODS: Cytotoxic and genotoxic activity of B. ceiba extract was examined by MTT and comet assay, respectively. Further, B. ceiba extract was analysed to determine total polyphenol content and DPPH antiradical scavenging activity. RESULTS: ethanol extract from B. ceiba flowers had a high polyphenols content with very potent antioxidant activity. Further, B. ceiba extract displayed moderate cytotoxicity against Huh7 cells and no cytotoxicity against HepG2 and A549 cells. The comet assay findings showed that Huh7 cells treated with four concentrations of B. ceiba extract (¼ IC(50), ½ IC(50), IC(50), and double IC(50)) increased the comet tail formation within 48 h in a concentration-dependent manner. CONCLUSION: ethanol extract from B. ceiba flowers exhibited its cytotoxicity through induction of DNA fragmentation in Huh7 cells.