Anti-cancer activity of Carica papaya leaf ethanolic extract and fractions against selected human cancer cell lines

Abstract

The anti-cancer activity of Carica papaya leaf ethanolic extract and ethyl acetate fraction were evaluated against selected human cancer cell lines by using 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay.The leaf ethanolic extract of C. papaya was subjected to fractionation by using hexane, chloroform and ethyl acetate to separate compounds based on their polarity.The ethanol and ethyl acetate fraction of the plant were tested for their cytotoxic and anti-cancer activity against HCT-116 human colon cancer cell line; mcF7human breast cancer cell line and A549-Human adenocarcinoma cell line by using MTT assay.There were eight three-fold dilutions of the plant samples were used as treatments starting from 100μg/mL down to 0.05μg/mL.Results showed that the ethanol extract and ethyl acetate fraction of C. papaya exhibited cytotoxic effect against HCT 116-Human colon cancer cell lines having IC50 values of 24.42 µg/ml and 34.87 µg/ml, respectively.On the otherhand, ethyl acetate fraction of the said plant manifested low cytotoxic activity againstmcF7 -Human breast cancer cell line and A549-Human adenocarcinoma cell line having IC50>100 µg/ml of the two cell lines.Based on the results, the ethanolic extract and ethyl acetate fraction of C. papaya was established to significantly reduced HCT 116-Human colon cancer cell line proliferation, manifesting the cytotoxic/bioactive compounds in the said plant leaves and very promising sources for the development of anti-cancer agents.