Rhazya stricta cytotoxic properties

Background: Natural products have been trusted for treatment of ailments for years; many of these treatments have been used for relief from cancer and related disorders. There are some reports about the biological activities of Rhazya stricta like antibacterial properties and in the present study, evaluating its toxicity in cell lines was determined.Methods: In this experimental study, HT-29 cancer cell line and MDBK normal cell line were obtained from Pasteur Institute of Iran. The cells were treated with methanol extract and different fractions of the species in 48 hours. MTT assay was used to evaluate the cytotoxicity of R. stricta samples. The absorption of the formazan which was produced by viable cells was measured at 570 nm by ELISA reader. Hoechst 33258 staining was used to assess the probability of apoptosis.Results: The IC50 of methanol extract was found to be 79.33 μg/mL in the HT-29 cell line. Among the fractions, chloroform fraction with IC50 of 11.4 μg/mL showed the highest cytotoxicity in the HT-29 cell line. IC50 of chloroform fraction was calculated to be 24.2 μg/mL in MDBK cells. Apoptosis was found to be induced by the glowing of condensed chromatins which had been exposed to the chloroform fraction.Conclusion: The chloroform fraction with suitable selectivity index (SI=2.1) showed the highest cytotoxicity among the fractions in the HT-29 cell line and seemed promising for further cancer research.