Study onToxic Effects of Artemisisa Spp. Fractions from Iran on Human Cancer Cell Lines

Background and Objective: For most of cancers there is no treatment and most of them ended in death. So, the first investigational stage is evaluation of toxic effects of drug fractions on cancer cells. Artemisia species are important medicinal plants throughout the world. In this study, anti-tumoral effects of seven Artemisia spp. fractions from Iran were studied on cancer and normal cells. Material and Methods: Ethanol, ethylacetate, dichloromethane and hexane fractions of seven Artemisia species from Iran were prepared by step to step procedure. Cultivated cancer and fibroblast cells were incubated with different concentrations of fractions for ۷۲ hours and cytotoxicity was determined using MTT assay. Results were reported as IC۵۰ (concentration that kills ۵۰ percent of cells). Results: Obtained results showed strong and dose-dependent inhibition of cancer cell growth by different Artemisia fractions. The most cytotoxicity effects were for dichloromethane fraction from Artemisia biennis on cervix cancer cells, dichloromethane fraction from Artemisia ciniformis on gastric cancer cells and dichloromethane fraction from Artemisia diffusa on colon cancer cells. Ethylacetate, dichloromethane and hexane fractions from Artemisia biennis, hexane fraction from Artemisia ciniformis, hexane fraction from Artemisia santulina and ethylacetate fraction from Artemisia vulgaris had the least toxic effect on normal L۹۲۹ cells. Conclusion: Some isolated fractions caused a significant decrease in cancer cell growth and had less toxicity on normal cells. So, study on Artemisia in prevention or efficient treatment of different cancers is useful. Study the effect of effective fractions on apoptosis induction and determination of their mechanisms of actions is suggested.

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Key words: Artemisia ، Cancer cell lines ، Cytotoxicity ، MTT assay