In-vitro investigation of activities of extracts from some plants growing in Rize on cancer and normal cell lines

Cancer is one of the most important health problems worldwide. Researchers tend to have greater interest in natural products with potential anticancer properties because of the serious side effects of anticancer drugs and increased morbidity / mortality rates. The use of natural compounds alone or in combination hold great promise as chemopreventive agents to prevent cancer development. The aim of this study to determine the anti-proliferative properties of 32 methanol / ethyl acetate extracts obtained from 15 plants on a diploid cell line, ARPE-19 and cancer cells, A549, CRL-2923, HT-29 and HeLa. Cytotoxic activity of the extracts assessed using a colorimetric method, MTT. Apoptotic activities of the extracts were determined using DNA fragmentation, DAPI and Caspase-3 activity tests. Moreover, to wound healing assay was performed to evaluate the effects of extracts on motility potential of A549 and ARPE-19 cells. Our findings showed that significant anti-proliferative effects were observed in both MeOH and EtOAc extracts of Ornithogalum balansae flower / bulb, Sigesbeckia orientalis flower MeOH; EtOAc against A549 cells and MeOH extract of Helichrysum armenium and EtOAc extract of Apium sp against HT-29 cells. It was demonstrated that O. balansae extracts were determined to inhibit growth of A549 lung cancer cells at lower concentrations than other extracts (p<0.05). In conclusion, this is the first study showing that extracts of O. balansae possess considerable anti-proliferative activity against cancer cells especially for A549 cells. In addition, it was revealed that extracts of S. orientalis, Apium sp and H. armenium showed an important cytotoxicity effect on cancer cells. Further investigations are required to identify the effective component(s) of the extracts and to comprehensively evaluate their anti-proliferative effects on other cancer cell lines, in future.