In vitro antitumoral activity of gentiana olivieri

The potential therapeutic effects of plant derivatives and compounds which are used for therapy among the people are subjected to new drug research for cancer therapy. One of the reasons of these researches is that cancer drugs have serious adverse effects. The view of whether G. olivieri, reported as having lots of pharmacological effects scientifically, has any anti-tumor effect or not guides for our study, we planned that determination of phytochemical components of hexane and methanol extracts of G. olivieri leaves and flowers, and then evaluation of DNA protective, cytotoxic and apoptotic effects of these extracts. DNA protection activity of G. olivieri was studied by using pBR322 plasmid, cytotoxic activity by MTT technique on lung cancer cell lines H1299 and A549, apoptotic activity by evaluating anti-ssDNA and NF-kB expression. As a result, methanol extracts especially leaf methanol extract was the best active among the studied extracts of G. olivieri. Furthermore, we suggest that G. olivieri, used in most of traditional medicine in public, could be used as a naturel source for investigating DNA protective and apoptotic agents.