Abstract

The present investigation dealt with the antiproliferative, DNA-cleaving and preliminary phytochemical screening of n-hexane, dichloromethane and methanol extracts of Balanites roxburghiana Linn. The 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazole-2yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide assay was used to assess the antiproliferative activity against chronic myelogenous leukemia, hepatocellular carcinoma, breast cancer, cervical cancer, colorectal adinocarcinoma and normal human kidney embryonic cell lines. Calf-thymus DNA cleavage analysis was performed by agarose gel electrophoresis at various concentrations from 10 to 100 µg and preliminary phytochemical screening has been performed using standard procedure. The antiproliferative assay results of the extracts revealed that the n-hexane and dichloromethane extracts were more active compared to the methanol extract. The methanol extract showed 21.7 % activity against breast cancer cell lines only. n-Hexane extract (V1) exhibited DNA cleavage at all concentrations, which could be due to binding to DNA. The dichloromethane extract (V2) exhibited DNA cleavage at all concentrations but a very prominent low molecular weight DNA band formation could be observed with increasing concentration of the extract, With the methanol extract (V3), the DNA cleavage increased with concentration of the sample. A partial cleavage could be found at 10 µg concentration under a UV transilluminator. The preliminary phytochemical screening revealed presence of flavonoids, steroids, tannins and saponins.